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In addition, we have witnessed counties and cities wrangling over financial support and surprising exclusions from the list of businesses required to close in “tier 3” areas. Many must now socialise with household members only, which means the prospect of indoor events – not even particularly large ones – being…

Overall, workload and sector growth predictions were less optimistic than in the last few years, even with large infrastructure schemes such as High Speed 2 offering a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Worryingly, the focus on the pandemic response – while crucial – has had the unwanted…

This summer, Boris Johnson was pushing his slogan of “build, build, build” – and to do so greener and faster – while Rishi Sunak announced the government’s “plan for jobs” to spur the UK’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. It all sounds good in theory. And many in the construction…

Saying something as straightforward as ‘black lives matter’ should not be controversial. As many commentators have said before me – and much more eloquently at that – it certainly does not signify that other lives do not matter. It simply highlights the lived experience of black people around the world,…

Starting a new job is never that easy, especially when you have big shoes to fill. But doing so from home amid a global pandemic has certainly been a first for me. Our current situation has emphasised the divide between the types of roles that can and cannot be performed…

When I joined GE in 2011, the industry was in the depths of recession, but the efforts to overcome this challenge and still deliver on innovation have been inspirational. Brexit and major project delays have dampened the recovery but, until just a month ago, I had hoped that the sector…

With Brexit fears beginning to subside and strong infrastructure spending promised in the Budget, it almost looked like the ground engineering sector’s fears about lack of growth were behind it. At the time of writing this comment in mid-March – just a week after the “infrastructure revolution” Budget – life…

Many hoped that 2019 would be the start of boom times for the ground engineering sector if High Speed 2 (HS2) got the go ahead. But the delays, combined with Brexit fears, meant that it was a year of stagnation. With HS2 being given the green light in February and…

Landslip season is upon us. Last year’s unseasonably wet autumn has led to the news section on GE’s website being filled with almost daily updates on the latest slope and embankment failures from around the county. Rail networks in the South East have been affected, with a number of lines…

The UK construction industry has one of the best safety records in comparison to other construction sectors around the world and we have every reason to be proud of the part ground engineering plays in that. Lost time injuries are becoming less frequent events and fatal accidents are very rare…