UK house prices will end the year 9.5% higher than they started it, but the strength of increases this year means that in London the market could flatline in 2016, property firm Savills said on Tuesday, as it revised its forecasts for the next five years. The firm had predicted a 6.5% increase in prices
Demand for UK rental property has soared over the past twelve months, with seven tenants now chasing every new property on the market, according to a report. The surge has pushed up rents across Britain, according to Sequence, which analysed the prices of hundreds of lettings from estate agents including Barnard Marcus and William H
The borough of Copeland in north-west England is the last “affordable” area left in England, where the average house price is less than three times the average annual salary. According to a study by the Trade Union Congress, one in five local authorities were deemed “easily affordable” in 1997 with the cost of a home
The global consultancy world is set for a mega-merger after AECOM agreed to pay £2.3bn for rival URS Corporation. The deal will see the combined company employ 95,000 people across 150 countries. Michael S. Burke, AECOM president and chief executive officer, said: “This combination creates an industry leader with the ability to deliver more capabilities
Interserve has launched a legal challenge to the award of £4bn worth of defence estate construction contracts to rival Carillion, prompting the Ministry of Defence to suspend the procurement process. The Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) estate arm the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has “suspended” the award of three defence estate construction contracts, together worth up
Skanska has won the bid battle to build a new military training centre to replace the Deepcut barracks in Wiltshire. Construction work is to begin later this month on the £250m Worthy Down project in Winchester. The scheme – known as Project Wellesley – will take around five years to complete and will provide accommodation
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed the private sector partner it intends to bring in to help improve the running of its estate. Today, 21 May, the department confirmed it intends to sign a strategic business partner contract for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) with Capita, working in conjunction with URS and PA Consulting. There
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation this morning announced the award of £1.1bn worth of deals. This included its national housing prime and Scotland and Northern Ireland prime contracts, which were secured by the joint venture partners. An Interserve subsidiary, Landmarc Support Services, also picked up a big win for the national training estate prime deal worth
In a statement, Interserve’s board says the combined group will become one of the largest providers of support services in the UK, and that it will be ranked within the top three UK providers in terms of revenue. The statement also extols the benefits to be gained from the group’s increased scale, which it says
Britain’s biggest defence projects are running a total of 25 years late between them and it is unclear the Government can keep costs on target, the Whitehall spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) raised concerns about the MoD’s ability to keep its £164 billion, ten-year equipment plan on target despite evidence the
