Nine Elms contractor takes February league title

In all, 317 companies were listed as securing new work during the month by the Builders’ Conference, which maintains the BCLive league, but only seven of them won any contracts valued at more than £100m.

The total number of contracts awarded in February 2017 was 554 and the total value of these contracts was £4,298.0m. By comparison, in February 2015 the BCLive league table recorded 818 individual contracts with a combined value of £4,193m and in 2016 there were 804 contracts worth a combined £3,873m. The value of the work is up this year, but the number of projects is substantially down.

Multiplex won the contract to build the residential twin towers of One Nine Elms after both Interserve and Balfour Beatty had been preferred but failed to close a deal with Chinese client Dalian Wanda.

In second place to Multiplex in the table was Kier Group with a haul of 11 contracts worth a combined £254.9m.   The largest of these is a £200m project for offices in Liverpool.

A £150m contract for fitting out offices in Shoe Lane, London, contributed to a £239m total for ISG that propelled it into third place. 

Morgan Sindall usually has the most contract wins in any given month, but in February ISG won 15, against Morgan Sindall’s 14. Morgan Sindall’s largest was an £85m contract for its Overbury division, securing the company the number four spot on the BCLive league table.

“We started the month with high hopes of another bounce-back in new construction orders,” said Builders’ Conference chief executive Neil Edwards. “It didn’t arrive.”

He added: “For those of us that have read about the UK economy being the fastest-growing in Europe, the fact that this has largely failed to be reflected in construction demand is as frustrating as it is mystifying.   While other parts of industry are enjoying the ‘benefits’ of a weaker pound, the normally reliable barometer of UK economic sentiment remains fixed in place registering only average demand and average activity.”

February's Top 20  (click on image to enlarge)

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