Published Sunday 2 August 2026 · By the JustEng team
A busy fortnight for the UK built environment: record results at one of the sector’s largest contractors, a significant loosening of the infrastructure planning regime, and further evidence that insolvency and skills pressures are still shaping the market. Below are the stories that matter most this week — and what each one means for engineering recruitment and vacancies across the UK.
Morgan Sindall posts record first half as fit out drives growth
Morgan Sindall Group reported half-year results on 23 July showing profit before tax up 21 per cent to £116.1m on revenue up 8 per cent to £2,562m, and lifted guidance for its core divisions. Fit out arm Overbury was the standout, with revenue and operating profit both up 19 per cent, while partnership housing fell back. The group ended the period with net cash of £418m.
Hiring angle: Strong order books at tier-one contractors typically translate into sustained demand for project engineers, design managers and technical leads, and we are seeing that feed through to civil engineering vacancies and commercial roles. Candidates weighing a move should benchmark carefully — our structural engineer salary guide is a useful starting point.
Source: Investing.com
Pre-application consultation scrapped for major infrastructure
Mandatory pre-application consultation for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects was removed from 24 July 2026 under the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. Government expects the change to cut up to a year from Development Consent Order timelines and save developers around £1bn over this Parliament, supporting a target of at least 150 major projects determined.
Hiring angle: Faster consenting pulls design and delivery workload forward, and consultancies tend to hire ahead of it — expect renewed candidate demand for highways, water and energy specialists across our civil engineering recruitment desk.
Source: GOV.UK
Rolling annual construction insolvencies pass 3,800
Construction firm failures rose 4 per cent in June to 309, up from 296 in May, taking the rolling annual total beyond 3,800. Construction accounted for 17 per cent of all insolvencies in England and Wales, with the collapse of CN100 contractor Ardmore among the most significant of the period.
Hiring angle: Insolvencies release experienced engineers into the market at short notice, and employers who move quickly can secure people who would not otherwise be available — something a specialist recruitment agency is well placed to spot. Engineers affected can see live roles on our engineering jobs board.
Source: Construction News
CITB: 206,000 extra workers needed by 2030
The CITB Construction Workforce Outlook 2026–2030 puts the additional workforce requirement at around 206,000 people, or roughly 41,200 a year. An ageing workforce and a training pipeline that is not replacing leavers fast enough are cited as key drivers, with quantity surveyors and commercial managers among the hardest roles to fill.
Hiring angle: A structural talent shortage of this scale is why headhunting, rather than advertising alone, is increasingly the only reliable route to hard-to-find engineers across the UK market.
Source: Construction News
Construction PMI still deep in contraction
The S&P Global/CIPS UK Construction PMI registered 38.4 in June, only marginally above the May reading of 38.2 and well below the 50 no-change mark. Housing activity was the main drag, with elevated borrowing costs and economic uncertainty continuing to weigh on output.
Hiring angle: A weak headline index masks real divergence — infrastructure, data centres and remediation are recruiting while residential is quiet, so engineering jobs UK searches increasingly reward sector mobility.
Source: S&P Global
Gateway 2 throughput improves but backlog persists
The Building Safety Regulator made 368 building control approval decisions in the 12 weeks to 28 June, up from 358 in the previous reporting period, with 1,505 live applications in the system. Gateway 2 remains the mandatory stop/go point that higher-risk buildings must pass before construction can begin.
Hiring angle: Sustained Gateway workload keeps fire engineer vacancies and facade specialist roles competitive — see our fire engineering and facade engineer jobs pages.
Source: Building Design
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