Weekly highlights

Weekly highlights

Each week the Construction team compiles a round-up of highlights from the world of construction

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Latest Construction News

Defra announces measures to accelerate development of offshore wind projects

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced measures to accelerate the development of offshore wind projects in the UK. The government is streamlining the consenting process for up to 13 major offshore wind projects, potentially generating 16GW of electricity and unlocking £20-30bn of investment in homegrown clean power. These changes will enable the government to designate new or extend existing Marine Protected Areas to offset impacts to the seabed caused by offshore wind development, preventing delays previously caused by insufficient environmental compensation agreements, with costs funded by developers through the Marine Recovery Fund. Any new designations of Marine Protected Areas will adhere to the existing legislative process, including consultation with affected industries and communities.

DfE publishes 2023 Industry Training Board review

The Department for Education (DfE) has published the 2023 Industry Training Board (ITB) review, which examines the role and effectiveness of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). The review made 17 recommendations, including merging the ITBs into a single workforce planning and development body, supported by a statutory levy, as well as developing a digital skills passport to verify and monitor competency, among other suggestions. Alongside the review, the DfE has published its response to the recommendations, emphasising the vital role of the ITBs within the construction and engineering construction industries and concluding that the ITB levy-grant model should be retained. While the review proposed merging the CITB and ECITB, the government has not committed to legislating for a single body. Instead, a steering group will be formed to consider implementing the review's recommendations. The Skills Minister has also called for increase collaboration between the CITB and ECITB in key areas such as infrastructure, clean energy jobs, and skills passporting.

Construction weekly highlights—30 January 2025

This week's edition of Construction weekly highlights includes analysis of cases where the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) found a ‘building safety risk’ which could lead to the making of a ‘building liability order’ under the Building Safety Act 2022 (381 Southwark Park Road v Click St Andrews), where the Court of Session enforced an adjudicator’s award following ‘Smash and Grab’ adjudication proceedings (ATG Services v Ogilvie), where the TCC gave valuable guidance on payment notices, pay less notices, and default payment notices (Placefirst v Car Construction), and where the Court of Appeal (CoA) dismissed an appeal related to the High Court’s calculation of damages where the claimant’s mitigation actions resulted in an increased benefit to the company, as well as the Cabinet Office’s update on the final preparations for the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) coming into force on 24 February 2025, and publication by HM Treasury (HMT) of a working paper on its 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy.

High Court finds a ‘building safety risk’ which could lead to the making of a ‘building liability order’ under the Building Safety Act 2022 and permits RTM company to claim damages on behalf of leaseholders (381 Southwark Park Road RTM & Various Leaseholders v Click St Andrews)

Property Disputes analysis: This is the first High Court case to hold that defective works by a developer gave rise to a ‘relevant liability’ as a result of a ‘building safety risk’ under section 130(3)(b) of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022), paving the way for the claimant right to manage company (RTM Co) to apply at a subsequent hearing for a building liability order (BLO) against the parent company of the insolvent developer. The Technology and Construction Court (TCC) gave guidance on the procedure for seeking a BLO. Further, the RTM Co was, under an agreement to purchase the property, able to recover against the developer and by extension against the parent company as guarantor, all of the individual leaseholders’ losses for breach of covenant in their leases. Written by Tiffany Scott, barrister, Wilberforce Chambers.