Balfour Beatty merges arms to create UK’s biggest m&e firm

Balfour Beatty Engineering Services will have a revenue of £600m and will offer national coverage.

Balfour Kilpatrick and Haden Young have been operating as separate m&e businesses while being part of Balfour Beatty.

Balfour Beatty managing director John Moore said the firm would concentrate on healthcare and education, power systems and power project markets.

l Balfour Beatty is suing a contractor for £1.4m in a row over a £65m hospital development in Hull.

Haden Young, now part of Balfour Beatty Engineering Services, had been hired by main contractor Shepherd Construction to carry out m&e works on new facilities at Castle Hill Hospital in April 2007.

In a writ filed at the High Court, Balfour Beatty claimed that Shepherd had deducted £2.2m from its payment after the subcontracted works came in five months late.

An adjudicator ruled that the subcontract completion date should be extended and that Shepherd was not entitled to deduct the costs.

Shepherd was also ordered to cover the adjudicator’s fees and expenses which, added to the other sums, totalled over £1.4m, plus interest and costs.

According to the writ, Shepherd has failed to pay the money, and its final account statement on 13 July indicated it did not intend to pay.