ISG has been awarded a £59 million office refurbishment scheme in London’s Old Bailey by Blackstone, the leading global asset manager. This win further strengthens ISG’s relationship with Blackstone, with the company also delivering office projects at the iconic Adelphi Building and One American Square. Located opposite the famous criminal
Kier, the leading property, residential, construction and services group, has been retained by public sector owned built environment specialist Scape Group as the sole contractor to deliver up to£1.5bn of construction and maintenance work over the next four years. The Scape National Minor Works framework covers the whole of the
Henry Boot PLC announces certain changes to the Board. With effect from 31 December 2015, John Brown, Chairman, and Mike Gunston, Non-Executive Director, will retire from the Board having completed nine years’ service. A succession plan has been considered for some time and, therefore, also on 31 December 2015,
Matt Hancock, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has announced an ambitious new target to get more small businesses working on central government contracts. In 2013 to 2014, central government spent an unprecedented £11.4 billion with small and medium-sized businesses – those employing 250 employees or less. This is equivalent
ISG has been awarded a £59 million office refurbishment scheme in London’s Old Bailey by Blackstone, the leading global asset manager. This win further strengthens ISG’s relationship with Blackstone, with the company also delivering office projects at the iconic Adelphi Building and One American Square. Located opposite the famous criminal courts, the 1980s era building at 20 Old Bailey will undergo a comprehensive modernisation and upgrade programme, involving extensive structural alterations and internal remodelling, renewal of the frontal elevation and the addition of two further floors at roof level. On completion, the building will provide circa 240,000 sq ft of high-specification Cat A office accommodation. The transformation of the building’s façade sees ISG create a contemporary yet sympathetic new elevation, with stone, aluminium and glazed architectural treatments. Major structural work includes column strengthening to facilitate the installation of the additional floors at roof level. ISG will also carry out wide-ranging remodelling works, infilling the existing square atrium in the centre of the building and creating a new, larger, rectangular atrium towards the front of the building. The new atrium will also extend downwards to ground floor level to maximise the volume of natural light entering the reconfigured building. To further unify accommodation at 20 Old Bailey and create additional capacity at the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, ISG will extend these stepped back floor plates in line with the new façade. ISG will relocate and form a new main core, infilling two existing cores, a staircase and service risers to create more spacious open floor plates at all levels. The steel frame roof extension will be stepped back from the main façade and incorporate balcony structures across the two new levels. The project also includes remodelling three existing basement floors to provide cycle storage, changing, shower and locker facilities. Stuart Deverill, ISG’s Southern regional managing director, commented: “Blackstone has an enviable pedigree for acquiring underperforming property assets in prime London locations and re-positioning the space to create highly-desirable commercial office space. This highly specialised and logistically complex project plays to our significant strengths delivering central London heavy office refurbishment schemes and underlines our commitment to forging strong relationships and working in partnership with our existing customer base.”
Kier, the leading property, residential, construction and services group, has been retained by public sector owned built environment specialist Scape Group as the sole contractor to deliver up to£1.5bn of construction and maintenance work over the next four years. The Scape National Minor Works framework covers the whole of the UK and delivers schemes valued between £50,000 and £4m, ranging from refurbishment and maintenance to new construction projects. The framework is open to any public sector organisation, with projects ranging from schools, health centres, police and fire stations to town halls, leisure centres and community buildings. Kier was first appointed to Scape’s National Minor Works framework in September 2011, which encompassed projects valued up to £2m, and this latest agreement extends the partnership for a further four years, increasing the value of projects to £4m. Kier has already delivered over 500 successful projects through the first framework and at its peak it was delivering the equivalent of one project per day for six months. Haydn Mursell, Kier Group chief executive, commented: “This agreement provides an ideal opportunity to build on the excellent relationship we have already developed with Scape Group, cementing our role as a leading provider of solutions to the public sector and underlining the strength of our national construction offering.” “Kier and Scape share a very similar ethos and we are both committed to using our extensive market experience to deliver exceptional projects, whilst creating opportunities for employment and training in the locationswhere we operate. We have already delivered successful projects together, and we look forward to working on an even broader spectrum of schemes over the next four years.” Mark Robinson, Scape Group chief executive, added: “Kier has successfully established the Minor Works framework as a highly valued service for the public sector. The team have executed over 500 projects with a quality approach, a steadfast focus on creating client value and a continued passion for stimulating local economic growth. “The public sector continues to weather a perfect storm; the mounting pressures associated with budget and talent shortfalls, coupled with increased demand for public services, places extraordinary pressure on our colleagues. By raising the upper project value to £4m, our aim with the new Minor Works framework is to offer more flexibility that will allow the public sector to work more efficiently, by combining more projects into diversified programmes.”
Henry Boot PLC announces certain changes to the Board. With effect from 31 December 2015, John Brown, Chairman, and Mike Gunston, Non-Executive Director, will retire from the Board having completed nine years’ service. A succession plan has been considered for some time and, therefore, also on 31 December 2015, Jamie Boot will retire as Chief Executive and replace John Brown as Non-executive Chairman. John Sutcliffe, who has been Group Finance Director for the past nine years, will take over as Chief Executive and Darren Littlewood, currently Group Financial Controller, will take over as Group Finance Director, again both with effect from 31 December 2015. To work with this team, the Company has appointed three new independent Non-executive Directors effective from 1 October 2015, allowing for a sensible handover period. Joanne Lake will join as Deputy Chair and Chair of the Remuneration Committee as well as a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees. She has extensive corporate finance experience and is currently Deputy Chair of Mattioli Woods PLC and a Non-executive Director of Gateley (Holdings) Plc. Secondly, the Company has appointed Peter Mawson as a Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Nomination Committee, as well as a member of the Audit and Remuneration Committees and Senior Independent Non-executive Director. He was, until recently, Chief Executive of West Northamptonshire Development Corporation and is Non-executive Chairman of Nexus Planning Limited. Peter was previously Group Chief Executive of Donaldsons LLP, prior to its acquisition by DTZ, where he remained for two years undertaking post acquisition integration work. Thirdly, the Company has appointed Gerald Jennings as a Non-executive Director and as a member of the Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committees. For the last 16 years Gerald was Portfolio Director in the North of England for Land Securities PLC where, most recently, he was responsible for the delivery of the one million sq ft Trinity Leeds retail scheme, and is currently serving as the President of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce. Commenting on the Board changes, the Chairman, John Brown, said: “Jamie has run the business very successfully for almost 30 years and I can think of no better successor, looking after shareholders’ interests into the future. The business operations and longer term strategic goals of the Henry Boot Group have been extremely well managed by this team, and I feel very confident that Jamie, John and Darren will take Henry Boot from strength to strength in the future. The appointees to the Board, who will join James Sykes as Non-executive Directors, bring extensive corporate finance, planning, strategic land and commercial development experience to the Company and are, therefore, ideally suited to support our Group Executive team. I am in no doubt that they will make a strong contribution to the delivery of our strategic goals into the future.”
Matt Hancock, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has announced an ambitious new target to get more small businesses working on central government contracts. In 2013 to 2014, central government spent an unprecedented £11.4 billion with small and medium-sized businesses – those employing 250 employees or less. This is equivalent to 26% of central government spend. By 2020, the government wants to increase this to a third. This would mean an extra £3 billion per year (in 2013 to 2014 terms) going to small and medium-sized firms directly or through the supply chain. To search for government contracts to suit your business, visit www.gov.uk/contracts-finder. Earlier this year, the government improved the way it buys goods and services to help more small businesses bid for public sector contracts, by: requiring the entire public sector supply chain to be paid within 30 days abolishing pre-qualification questionnaires for low value public sector contracts, making it simpler and quicker to buy requiring the public sector to publish its contracts in one place on Contracts Finder Each government department and the Crown Commercial Service will now make sure that it meets this target by setting out individual plans and targets for spending with small and medium-sized businesses over the next 5 years. Minister for the Cabinet Office Matt Hancock said: This is such an amazing opportunity for the country’s diverse and innovative small businesses, and today I urge them to get stuck in. From computers to uniforms – there are so many opportunities for small businesses to work with us, and I want to see more of them providing value for money for the taxpayer and benefiting from our spending. John Allan, National Chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: The government has much to gain from opening up public procurement to smaller businesses and we welcome the government’s commitment to achieve this ambitious target. To meet it, the government will need to focus on robust monitoring and challenge of poor practices wherever they are found. The FSB will play its part, and will work with ministers on this important goal. John Manzoni, Chief Executive of the Civil Service said: Further opening up our marketplace to small businesses is good economic sense all round – making it easier for them to access and win government business opportunities, whilst encouraging increased competition and market innovation to deliver best value for the taxpayer.
