New York’s mayor is to spend $5.3m (£2.7m) recruiting construction safety inspectors for the city after accidents that have resulted in 13 deaths this year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is to add 63 recruits to the 398 working in the city, increasing their number by 16%.

There have been growing fears over the safety of construction in the US city after a run of fatalities, including the collapse of a construction crane on a site on Manhattan’s East Side in March, which killed six workers and a member of the public.

The mayor said: “We have a critical responsibility to protect the public from construction hazards and to protect the lives and guard the safety of the city’s more than 125,000 construction workers.”

Several UK companies are working in New York, including Bovis Lend Lease, which has an office in the region. Bovis has worked on a series of high-profile projects in the city including the National 11 September Memorial & Museum New York and the demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building at the Ground Zero site. Other UK companies working in the region include engineers Arup, WSP and Buro Happold.

The New York recruitment drive comes weeks after the UK Health and Safety Executive revealed it was going on a recruitment drive for inspectors following claims that it is dangerously under-resourced.