Representatives from Unite confirmed that it would carry out industrial action on Wednesday (19 August) following the cancellation of the meeting between union stewards and the site’s subcontractor group council. The union said that all 1,200 workers would be downing tools between 5:30am and 8am on Wednesday morning in protest over the subcontractor group’s failure to listen to their health and safety concerns. Workers are demanding a full-time paid health and safety convenor be installed at the site and want the subcontractors to back a union-led health and safety committee. The strike will be the second in the space of two weeks at the Sellafield nuclear site after 1,200 workers walked out on the 5 August. A Unite spokesman said: “Today’s meeting was cancelled. This was due to the Sellafield subcontractor group refusing paid release for the stewards to attend the meeting. It will now take place on Monday (17 August), when an escalating strategy will be agreed. “This refusal to allow accredited reps to attend a meeting on site underlines the draconian attitude of the contractors at Sellafield and means that industrial relations are now teetering on the edge of the abyss.” Unite senior shop steward at Sellafield Ryan Armstrong told Construction News: “All we are asking for is for the [subcontracting council] to come to the table and end this nonsense. “Everyone looks to Sellafield as the prestige site but with things as they are at the moment, we are no prestige site. “We should all come together as stakeholders before things start getting worse.” A spokesman for Sellafield Ltd told said: “Obviously we are disappointed with any industrial action at our site. “However, this is not a dispute involving Sellafield Ltd and Sellafield Ltd employees. It is an industrial dispute between a group of contracting companies and their employees which we hope they will resolve as soon as possible. It is for them to comment. “But let me be very clear, this dispute has absolutely nothing to do with health and safety at Sellafield Ltd. We have had a record year in terms of health and safety, including our contract community. It also has no link to the productivity or profitability of Sellafield Ltd.”

New work grew by 1 per cent in Q2 compared with the previous quarter, with private new housing (3.9 per cent), public other new work (1.2 per cent) and infrastructure (0.5 per cent) seeing the biggest jumps in output, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. The total value of housing work in Q2 2015 was the highest on record at £7.1bn, while Q2 also represents the fourth successive quarter of growth in infrastructure. Growth in new work has been partially offset by a fall in repair and maintenance work. R&M has continued to struggle quarter on quarter, posting a 1.2 per cent fall. The decline was sharpest in the non-housing R&M market, which dropped by 3.9 per cent over the period. Housing R&M remained relatively strong, posting an increase of 1.5 per cent. Overall, output in Q2 2015 was 2.4 per cent higher than a year earlier. Month on month, construction output increased by 0.9 per cent in June 2015 compared with May 2015. For the year, output was up 2.6 per cent in June 2015 compared with June 2014. In June, private housing new work reached its second highest level since 2010, but public housing new work continued to fluctuate, hitting its second lowest level since September 2013. Compared with June 2014, Infrastructure output is 21.8 per cent higher, while public housing new work has fallen by 9.8 per cent. As part of the release, previous output has also been revised upwards. Output in April has been revised up by 0.5 percentage points to 0 per cent, while output for May was revised up by 0.3 points to reach -1 per cent. The ONS said these revisions were due to the incorporation of late data. Commenting on the figures, CECA Chief Executive Alasdair Reisner said: “Today’s figures confirm a steady increase in infrastructure output. “It is vital that Government continues to support existing investment commitments and seriously examines the case for the next generation of infrastructure investments. “In the last Parliament we saw that the bold decisions to invest in transport projects had stimulated economic  growth across the country. “This now builds a strong case for commitment to deliver Crossrail 2, HS3 and a wave of smaller local projects supported by extended Growth Deals. We hope that the Chancellor will use the Spending Review to support such investment.”

Reports suggest US company Bechtel and Japan-based JGC Corporation are set to secure the lucrative engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for Hitachi’s £8bn Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant on the Isle of Anglesey. An Hitachi spokesman told Construction News: “We can confirm we are in exclusive discussions with two companies – Bechtel and JGC Corporation – regarding a potential role in the EPC delivery team for Wylfa Newydd.” If successful, Bechtel and JGC Corporation are expected to work together on the project. The Wylfa Newydd project, which is being developed through Hitachi subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power, is expected to create up to 8,500 jobs during the construction phase and up to 1,000 jobs during operation. Hitachi plan to build two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) at the site – beside the existing Magnox nuclear power plant – generating 2,700MW of power. The Hitachi spokesman added: “We can say that it is our intention to put together a delivery team which will build on our knowledge of deploying the ABWR, adding extensive global experience. “This progress will also pave the way for significant involvement of UK firms throughout the supply chain.” A Bechtel spokesperson said: “Although it’s premature to discuss specifics, we see great promise in joining the capabilities of Bechtel and Hitachi to deliver a new nuclear power station at Wylfa. “Bechtel has completed complex megaprojects in the UK for 60 years and is currently completing construction of the first new nuclear generating unit this century in the United States.” The first electricity generation at Wylfa Newydd is expected in the first half of the 2020s.