Legal

Laing O’Rourke can continue with a claim for breach of contract against an adviser it employed on a defective PFI mental health hospital, a judge has ruled. The contractor is suing consultant Sweett for £20.4m over independent testing work carried out by cost and management firm Nisbet, which Sweett acquired…

“Pain/gain” clauses to spread construction risk between clients, contractors and the supply chain will be included in the JCT’s forthcoming target cost contract. A member of the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) drafting subcommittee has lifted the veil on the Target Cost Contract (TCC 2024) document before its official full release…

Construction can now go ahead on a Balfour Beatty road scheme worth at least £228m near Manchester after objectors withdrew their legal challenge. Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) had sought a judicial review into the A57 Link Roads project, which will create two roads near the village of Mottram,…

Keltbray failed to raise a key plank of its current appeal against its £20m cover-bidding fine in 2021 during the competition regulator’s initial investigation, a hearing has heard. The contractor is appealing against the financial penalty imposed by the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) last year, after the regulator’s investigation…

The competition regulator “plucked a figure almost from thin air” when fining demolition firm Keltbray £20m over cover bidding, the firm’s legal representative claimed yesterday in an appeal hearing. Keltbray’s fine, initially reduced to £16m after agreeing a settlement, was the biggest among the 10 demolition firms that were fined…

A construction boss who defrauded a pensioner of £60,000 has been jailed and banned from being a company director. Adam Kirkbride was sentenced to four years in jail after he was found guilty of defrauding an investor and of breaching a director ban, according to the Insolvency Service. The 32-year-old…

A director has been given a suspended jail sentence after knowingly exposing workers to asbestos. Inspectors were called to a building site operated by Eye Track Ltd in Stretford, Manchester, over concerns about unsafe working at height while units were being demolished to make way for eight new homes, according…

The former director of a subcontractor has blamed a dispute with Vinci's UK building solutions arm for putting his company out of business. Ex-Marshdale Construction Ltd director Ben Edgar made the claim in a report published on Companies House last Friday (19 April) by the firm's administrator, insolvency firm Currie…

Contractors will be able to claim an extension of time and costs if asbestos or unexploded bombs are unexpectedly found during a design-and-build job, under new changes to the JCT contract. The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) yesterday (17 April) published a new edition of a standards document for design-and-build contracts,…

The Home Office has cleared precast-concrete firm FP McCann of the threat of a fine after inspectors found five contractors working illegally during an immigration raid on a site in Wales. The Northern Ireland-based company — ranked second in last year’s CN Specialists Index for concrete — faced a £225,000…