Daily briefing
National Construction News briefing: Friday 6 November 2026
15 stories from the last 24 hours, one event or deadline today, two dates for the week ahead and five closing dates from our recent stories.
Stories from the last 24 hours
Highland Council plans Academy Street footway works in Inverness for early 2027
The Highland Council has given notice of footway widening, resurfacing and traffic light upgrades on Academy Street between January and March 2027, two years after it ended a wider redesign of the street.
Reading proposes wider Article 4 area to curb small HMO conversions in five wards
Reading Borough Council wants landlords in more of Park, Redlands and Katesgrove and parts of Church and Thames wards to seek planning permission before converting houses into three-to-six-person HMOs.
Thames Water marks 100 days of drought with London reservoirs at 56%
Thames Water says its region has passed 100 days of drought, with London reservoir storage at 56% against a 77% seasonal average, a hosepipe ban still in force and leak repairs running above 1,000 a week.
Core Five marks practical completion of £200m One Exchange Square retrofit at Broadgate
The cost consultant and employer's agent has seen the 13-storey Broadgate scheme through from feasibility in December 2020 to handover, with FTI Consulting already signed up as an occupier on 15-year leases.
Knight Harwood dragon boat race raises £11,000 for Westminster's Abbey Centre
The company's 25 St George Street project team organised the race at West Reservoir, while colleagues volunteered at a Dartford gunpowder mill site and an AMURT feeding programme in London.
Wanstead Park Grotto leaves Heritage at Risk Register after £1m stabilisation
Historic England has taken the 18th-century ruin in Epping Forest off its at-risk list after a nine-year City of London Corporation project that installed a galvanised steel frame to stabilise the principal facade.
Highland committee to consider 1 April 2027 start for two short-term let control areas
Councillors will be asked on 12 November to publish a statutory notice designating Inverness City and Highland Rural control areas after Scottish Ministers approved the proposals on 26 October 2026.
Hackney signs Vital Energi for heat pump network serving 1,486 homes at Colville and Britannia
The council has contracted Vital Energi to build and operate an air source heat pump network across the Colville and Britannia developments, replacing an earlier design based on combined heat and power and gas boilers, with first connections due in early 2028.
BBA names six finalists for first Sustainable Innovator Award
Six construction product start-ups and small businesses, from a hemp-based walling system to a recycled-rubber highway drain, will compete for a certification package the BBA values at about £50,000.
MWH Treatment contracted to design five Severn Trent sites in North Nottinghamshire phosphorus programme
RSK Group company MWH Treatment has been contracted to complete the detailed design for five Severn Trent Water sites targeted under an accelerated delivery programme to meet tighter WINEP phosphorus permits.
Social housing tenant satisfaction rises to 74% as repairs performance improves, RSH says
The Regulator of Social Housing's 2025/26 Tenant Satisfaction Measures show overall satisfaction up two points, on-time repairs at 83% and safety checks at or above 98%, but shared owner satisfaction is lower at 50%.
RICS Q3 monitor shows workloads at -7% as credit outlook and housing weaken
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' Q3 2026 UK Construction Monitor records a sixth negative quarter for workloads, with private housing at -18% and short-term credit expectations falling to -36%.
Morgan Sindall starts £23.1m Student Hub refurbishment at University of Portsmouth
Morgan Sindall Construction has broken ground on a 3,125 sq m refurbishment and extension at Ravelin Park, one of the projects in the university's £250m, 10-year Estate Masterplan.
Highland Council secures £5.4m for home retrofit with ECO4 loss on agenda
The Highland Council has secured about £5.4m of external funding for 2026/27 to retrofit council, owner-occupied and private rented homes, as the loss of ECO4 funding was put to its Climate Change Committee.
Pick Everard-designed carbon-neutral fire station opens on Croydon Road in Reigate
The 950 sq m all-electric station for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service replaces the former building on Croydon Road, with Pick Everard as designer and Neilcott Construction as contractor.
Today
Constructing Excellence National Awards
Takes place today at London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.
This week
Construction Computing Awards
Takes place on Thursday 12 November.
Housebuilder Awards
Takes place on Thursday 12 November.
Closing soon
The Environment Agency said on 2 November 2026 that it is updating its Fluvial Modelling Standards, the guidance that sets out how hydraulic river models are built and reviewed in England, and has opened a consultation survey that closes on 6 November.
Largest construction works tenders closing 30 October to 12 November 2026
The consultation closes at 9am on Monday 16 November 2026.
Public-sector buyers have 120 construction works tenders closing on Find a Tender between 6 and 19 November 2026, with the single-contract opportunities among them carrying estimates that add up to £926.8m, according to Cabinet Office open contracting data.
Promoters of rail, tram and harbour schemes in Wales will face a three-month statutory decision deadline on Transport and Works Act applications from 20 November 2026, after the Welsh Government consented to UK regulations rewriting the procedure.
About this briefing
Published on weekday mornings. Every item comes from a story National Construction News has already published and checked against its sources, from dates organisers have published, or from our data trackers. See the events and awards calendar, or get the week's stories by email with the weekly newsletter.