Laing O'Rourke goes nuclear

Laing O’Rourke’s £2bn contract to build EDF’s nuclear plant at Hinkley Point put the contractor way out in front in the building work league table forJuly, knocking Balfour Beatty down to second place after two months in the top spot.

The big win helped paper over a drop in overall construction over July, with activity falling to its lowest level since October last year.

Laing O’Rourke’s contract haul is £2.1bn, propelling it from 4th to top spot in the yearly work won table, including civils, moving above Balfour Beatty, Vinci and Kier.

Vinci Construction was also a big mover last month, up from 11th to 3rd in the monthly table, including civils, with a £205m contract haul and from 10th to 3rd in the monthly table excluding civils.

The news came as the CPA/Barbour ABI construction index fell from 115 last month to 111, which represents a 3% fall in construction activity and is the lowest level of monthly activity since October last year.

The index, compiled by the Construction Products Association (CPA) using data from construction information firm Barbour ABI, measures contract awards and uses a January 2010 base of 100.

Noble Francis, CPA economics director, said the fall was unsurprising, given the government’s ongoing cuts to capital investment and disruption caused to construction by the build-up to the Olympics.

The results emerged as the Office for National Statistics’ latest figures showed construction output fell 3.9% in the second quarter of this year compared with the first quarter, marginally less than 5.2% first stated.

The fall in output was still down 9.5% compared with the same period in 2011.