Balfour Beatty to axe three regional offices in construction shake-up

Infrastructure giant Balfour Beatty has unveiled plans to close three regional businesses as part of a restructuring at its UK construction division.

The group said it was closing its site in Dartford because of a lack of work and a “disproportionately high cost base”, while its smaller sites in Doncaster and Rochdale will also be shut down.

Balfour said the three sites, which each employ between 50 and 90 people, together account for about 8 per cent of its UK regional business, which generated revenues of £1.5 billion last year.

The firm said: “It is too early to confirm the total number of redundancies that could be affected should we go ahead with these proposals. During this process, Balfour Beatty will explore all available options for the redeployment of employees across the regional business and the wider Balfour Beatty Group.”

Balfour also announced today that industry veteran Nick Pollard, a former chief executive of Bovis Lend Lease UK, has been appointed to head up its UK construction business.

Group chief executive Andrew McNaughton said: “Nick’s focus on enhancing performance in mainstream construction, in the UK as well as overseas, combined with his advisory roles for investors and government will be invaluable in bringing fresh ideas to the business and broaden the skills of the senior management team.”

In a separate statement, Balfour said it had won a contract worth more than £110 million to build the the 43-storey Providence Tower residential scheme in London, which will be the tallest building it has constructed in the UK when it is completed in December 2015.