Manchester City Council has submitted fresh plans for enabling works and infrastructure to create a 5,500 home neighbourhood on old railway sidings in the Red Bank area of the city.

The Government has granted nearly £52m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to overcome infrastructure constraints needed to bring about delivery of new homes and green spaces, including the first phase of a new City River Park within the Red Bank neighbourhood – part of the wider Victoria North programme of development.

Red Bank is one of seven neighbourhoods that make up the Victoria North regeneration area – one of the biggest renewal projects the city has ever undertaken.

The planed Red Bank neighborhood plan will transform the disused 25-acre former Red Bank carriage sidings which has been been blighted by fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour.

Preparing the site for development will kick-start a wider programme of investment to create a new green neighbourhood.

Further planning applications will be submitted next year seeking permission for the main infrastructure works, improvements to St Catherine’s Wood and the first elements of the City River Park.

These will be followed by applications for residential development.

Victoria North is a joint venture programme between Manchester City Council and developer Far East Consortium (FEC).

Over the next 15 to 20 years, the Victoria North project will deliver more than 15,000 new homes (at least 20% of which will be affordable housing), with each neighbourhood connected by high quality green spaces and 46-hectare City River Park, which will open up and celebrate the Irk River Valley for the first time in decades.

Private investor HLD Group has bought Wakefield-based modular building specialist the Thurston Group.

The established £37m revenue business specialises in modular construction for the education, commercial and healthcare sectors and delivered a £2.7m profit in 2020.

Founded in 1970, Thurston employs over 250 people across three sites in the east of England.

The acquisition is the largest deal in HLD Group’s 10-year history and follows recent acquisitions of the Clugston distribution services arm and steel fabrication company SP Fabrication.

Demis Ohandjanian, CEO, HLD Group said: “This is a very exciting opportunity that will benefit both entities and result in new growth opportunities for the already profitable Thurston Group. 

“We’re also delighted to have the opportunity to work with existing company management, who will remain within the business.  

“Our intention is to ensure the continuation of Thurston Group’s strong organic growth, while introducing new revenue opportunities that will result in a substantial upsizing of the business over the next 3-5 years. ”

The acquisition was facilitated by Independent Growth Finance, through a £16m asset-based lending facility that formed part of the total acquisition cost. 

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The government has unveiled the “biggest ever public investment in Britain’s rail network” with £96bn pledged to deliver faster journeys for people across the North and the Midlands.

But a lot of the programme is money previously committed and savings from scrapping HS2’s eastern leg to Leeds. An £18bn cheaper version of the Northern Powerhouse Rail plan has also been adopted.

The original Hs2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail plans were costed at £185m

The Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will see construction work including:

Three-new-high-speed-lines-covering-110-miles

Complete HS2 from Crewe to Manchester, with new stations at Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadillya new high-speed line between Birmingham and East Midlands Parkway. Trains will continue to central Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield on an upgraded and electrified Midland Main Linedelivering Northern Powerhouse Rail through a new high-speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Marsden in Yorkshire as in the first of the options originally put forward in 2019.a study to look at the best way to take HS2 trains to Leeds, including capacity at Leeds Station.

The upgrading or electrification of 3 existing lines:

the complete electrification of the Midland Main Line from London to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.a programme of rapid upgrades to the East Coast Main Line to the East Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East. Journey times will be up to 25 minutes faster than nowfull electrification and upgrade of the Transpennine Main Line between Manchester, Leeds and York as part of delivering the first phase of NPR, installing full digital signalling, with longer sections of three- and four-tracking to allow fast trains to overtake stopping services, and increase through passenger services by 20%. An additional £625 million in new funding has been confirmed today to progress the Transpennine Route Upgradein total, electrification of more than 180 miles of route, meaning that 75% of the country’s main lines will be electric, to meet the ambition of removing all diesel-only trains from the network by 2040, as part of our commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050.

The freeing up of money to improve local services and integrate them properly with HS2 and NPR

a new mass transit system for Leeds and West Yorkshire, righting the wrong that Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without one. There will be £200 million of immediate funding to plan the project and start building it, and we commit to supporting West Yorkshire Combined Authority over the long term to ensure that this time, it gets doneseparately, we could halve journey times between Bradford and Leeds, to be as low as 12 minutesgreater connectivity benefits between the West and East Midlands in comparison to previous plan and progressing work on options to complete Midlands Rail Hub, dramatically increasing local services through central Birmingham and across the Midlands and connecting them better to HS2investment to deliver a programme of fares, ticketing and retail reform including the roll out of contactless pay-as-you-go ticketing at commuter stations in the Midlands and North, ending ticket queues and tackling confusion about fares by automatically ensuring that you are charged the best price. The government will also drive towards rolling out digital ticketing across the whole network

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “My mission is to level up opportunity across our country, which is why we’re making train journeys faster and more reliable through the biggest ever public investment in our rail network.

“Levelling up has to be for everyone, not just the biggest cities. That’s why we will transform transport links between our biggest cities and smaller towns, ensuring we improve both long-distance and vital local services and enabling people to move more freely across the country wherever they are.”

Construction leaders have given the revised plans a lukewarm response.

Director of Policy at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Chris Richards said: “Today’s decision on HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail will be a blow for many. Decisions are always subject to political review, but it has taken us 12 years to get nowhere – we have to make the next 12 about progress.

“The detailed background work for the schemes mentioned today has already been donewe can therefore shift right away to planning and ensuring we are maximising public benefit We expect to see a delivery plan in the next 12 months, otherwise today’s announcement is a further step on the journey to nowhere.”

Andy Bell, director at Ramboll in the UK, and chair of ACE’s transport group, said: “Just 18 months ago the Prime Minister told Parliament in a statement following the Oakervee review, that it ‘does not make any sense’ to build Northern Powerhouse Rail without HS2 and the Government’s strategy was to do both ‘simultaneously’.

“Clearly the pandemic has strained public finances since then, but another change of approach does not help an engineering sector scaling up skills and resources – at a time of global demand for rail expertise – around what appeared to be clear commitments and pledges.”

The government added: “The new plans, using a mixture of new-build high-speed line and upgraded conventional lines, were drawn up after it became clear that the full HS2 and NPR schemes as originally proposed would have cost up to £185 billion and not entered service until the early to mid-2040s.”

Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), said: “It is worrying that this scheme has been scaled back. Northern Powerhouse Rail will be essential in connecting up towns and cities in the North of England, alongside delivery of the Transpennine Route Upgrade.

“This project has been promised time and time again since 2014, with millions of pounds spent on its design and shovels ready to go. These plans being torn up will only add yet more costs and delay work.”

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Derby steelwork contractor Robinson Structures collapsed with total debts of £8.6m.

According to the directors’ statement of affairs, trade creditors have been left around £2.5m out of pocket.

Among the preferred creditors Barclays Bank was owed around £1.2m and HM  Revenue and Customs around £1.8m, in unpaid VAT and PAYE.

The family-owned firm fell into administration last week following the removal of its insured credit limits with its key suppliers.

But creditors are hoping that a pre-pack deal that saw fellow Derby steelwork contractor B&K Structures swoop to buy up assets in a pre-pack deal could help to raise the final distribution to creditors.

Assets of the third-generation steelwork contractor, which was set up in the 1950s, included its new HQ and workshop.

Following the pre-pack deal, which saved around 68 jobs, a new business B&K Hybrid Solutions will operate from the former Robinson HQ and production plant, giving the new business capacity to manufacture 10,000t of structural steelwork per annum.

The new well-equipped facilities form part of a larger, long-term plan to deliver on the increased demand for steel and timber-steel hybrid schemes within the UK.

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Morgan Sindall is due to start enabling works next week on its £65m Carlisle Southern Link Road project.

The 8km road project, which is being delivered as a two-stage design and build contract, moves forward with construction of two site compounds at Newby West and near to M6 Junction 42.

In early Spring, construction of essential site access will commence, including access roads to the west of the River Caldew and borehole installation for long-term groundwater monitoring.

Cumbria County Councillor Keith Little, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport said, “This is an exciting step for the scheme as the link road will vastly improve east to west connectivity as well as unlocking the delivery of St Cuthbert’s Garden Village, a Carlisle City Council scheme, which aims to deliver 10,000 new homes, infrastructure and employment to Carlisle and the wider county.”

Morgan Sindall’s team includes Capita as designer who had undertaken the preliminary design and development of the scheme for Cumbria County prior to joining the Morgan Sindall team. Local contractor Story Construction is also part of the Morgan Sindall team.

The CSLR will connect Junction 42 of the M6 with the A595 and will connect with Carlisle Northern Development route from the A595 to Junction 44 of the M6.

The project is key to the successful delivery of growth projects and initiatives such as the St.Cuthberts Garden Village, a council-led scheme that will deliver 10,000 new homes and employment opportunities within Carlisle.

Works include four new roundabouts, five cycle bridges and four road bridges and a cycle path along the northern side along its full length.

Two of the bridges will cross Network Rail’s West Coast Main Line and Cumbrian Coast Line.

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Mace has made two key senior appointments to lead business growth in nuclear and industrial markets.

Bryony Martin, previously with Aecom, joins Mace as the director for the UK’s central region and sector lead for industrial and manufacturing while Dave Weatherburn joins from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority as business director for nuclear.

Martin has a strong track record in both the property and infrastructure sectors which will support Mace’s 2026 business strategy, growing the regional business across Consult sectors.

She will be responsible for leading Mace’s regional growth agenda, working alongside the businesses’ sectors and practice groups, along with being the sector lead for industrial and manufacturing.

Industrial and manufacturing has been identified as a growth sector for the business in the UK and Europe. Martin will build upon Mace’s manufacturing track record, with clients including Siemens, JLR and BMW, with a focus on electrification and the facilities needed to support growth.

With over 30 years of defence and nuclear experience and a background in mechanical engineering, Dave has delivered a number of major projects and programmes across the private and public sector, including within senior roles with the UK government and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In his role, Weatherburn will work closely with existing Mace clients to build on the businesses’ current nuclear service offering.

With the nuclear team already successfully embedded within Sizewell C, Hinkley Point C, small modular reactor and wider decommissioning programmes, he will play an integral role in driving forward a more sustainable, resilient and connected world, helping further develop the businesses’ position within this important energy arena.

Jason Millett, CEO for Consultancy at Mace, said:“Together, both Bryony and Dave bring a wealth of experience to two fast-growing sectors within the business: industrial and manufacturing and nuclear.

“Their hires represent an exciting time for Mace’s Consult business as we work towards meeting the ambitious targets set out in the 2026 business strategy.”

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