Building Weekly Digest: 22 July

Happy Friday everyone - and hope you found ways to cope with the recent heatwave! There was plenty making up the news agenda this week, with a host of major contractors providing financial updates, announcing big project wins and revealing high-profile hires. We also covered a campaign highlighting the careers of Black women in construction and real estate, published our latest 'In Business' interview, reviewed the Stirling Prize shortlist and heard from the man in charge of Gleeds' Ukraine office on what it will take to rebuild the country. Take a look at all of this and more below.

A fit-out firm explains its post-pandemic growth plans

In our latest In Business interview, reporter Daniel Gayne focused on fit-out and refurbishment specialist BW: Workplace Experts . He spoke to ex-Overbury executives Steve Elliott and Anthony Brown about?how they plan to grow while maintaining the firm’s “underdog” spirit. Like many firms, BW had a tough pandemic, with revenue falling in two consecutive years to ￡145m in 2021 after one in five of jobs the firm was bidding for were shelved due to covid-19. The setbacks mean they may not achieve their previous target of ￡250m annual turnover by 2025, but Elliott insists things are turning around, with ￡180m in turnover already secured for 2022 and ￡220m expected by the end of this year.

What is record inflation doing to construction?

With UK inflation hitting yet another new 40-year high according to the latest Office for National Statistics in June we have updated our exclusive prices and data dashboard. It's a one-stop-shop for all the most recent price changes and trends in the building materials, energy, housing and construction labour markets - something that is particularly important at the moment given firms are facing spiralling costs.

Attracting women of colour to the sector

As part of our Every Person Counts Campaign, Daniel Gayne also spoke to? Hanna Afolabi (née Osundina) MRICS , founder of?Black Women in Real Estate. The piece is all about the group's #IAMWOMAN?campaign, which is this week highlighting the successes of five black women in the sector through a series of blogs, published in partnership with Madison Berkeley. Afolabi, who recently set up development management firm?Mood and Space, founded BWRE in 2019, having become tired of frequently being the only Black woman on project teams.

We need to start thinking about rebuilding Ukraine

This week Colin Ross , general director of the Gleeds office in Kyiv, looks at the huge reconstruction task ahead in Ukraine as, in the midst of Russia’s sustained attack on Ukraine, part of the conversation turns to the revival of the country. According to Ross, who had to leave the country when Russia invaded late in February, Ukraine will not be rebuilt as quickly as it was destroyed, so planning should start now. He also considers who is going to pick up the bill given that the Kyiv School of Economics has noted that with every passing week Ukraine suffers about $4.5bn worth of damage to civilian infrastructure.

Contractor news: Results, project and hiring updates

This week deputy editor David Rogers has kept up-to-date with all the latest announcements at the country's biggest contractors. First, Willmott Dixon promised to go after firms it says are avoiding responsibility for footing the bill on cladding repair work, which it says will cost it close to ￡44m. Next, Kier Group said it had made big inroads into cutting its debt last year, taking it down by nearly half to less than ￡220m, while McLaren Group brought in a former Laing O’Rourke digital bigwig to head up its digital and data business. James Eaton joins from Sir Robert McAlpine and started work last week. Finally, John Sisk & Son Ltd confirmed it had been appointed to carry out ￡100m of infrastructure work at the York Central scheme being masterminded by Homes England and Network Rail , while Skanska said the ￡29m it booked from the disposal of its infrastructure services division to M Group meant pre-tax profit jumped from ￡22.6m to ￡72.6m in the year to December.

Review of Stirling Prize shortlist

Our architectural editor Ben Flatman gave his assessment of the 2022 Stirling Prize shortlist. This year sees newcomers mix with veterans on six-strong shortlist of Hopkins Architects ’100 Liverpool Street office development, Panter Hudspith Architects ’ 228-home Orchard Gardens scheme, M? Architects ’ Sands End Arts and Community Centre, NIALL MCLAUGHLIN ARCHITECTS LTD ’s New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Reiach and Hall Architects ’ Forth Valley College, Falkirk Campus, and Henley Halebrown ’s Hackney New Primary School. Ben runs through each, and says that despite some surprising finalists all the buildings match up to the quality of previous Stirling shortlists.

Revealed: Architect of the Year Award shortlists

And finally a huge congratulations to all the architecture practices shortlisted for our sister title Building Design. 's Architect of the Year Awards (#AYA2022)! The finalists were all announced on Wednesday and you can see all the firms that have made the cut here. And if you fancy joining us all at The Brewery on 18 October to find out who has walked away with the coveted awards you can book your place here

Have a great weekend and see you next week!