Published Thursday 30 July 2026 · By the JustEng team
A record half-year from one of the UK’s largest contractors, a power-sector acquisition and another sobering set of insolvency figures headline today’s round-up. Here is what it all means for engineering recruitment and vacancies across the UK.
Morgan Sindall posts record first half as fit out surges
Morgan Sindall reported adjusted profit before tax up 21% to £116.1m on revenue up 8% to £2.6bn for the half year to 30 June, with fit-out arm Overbury growing revenue and operating profit by 19% and the group raising medium-term targets for its Fit Out and Construction divisions (Construction Enquirer).
Hiring angle: When tier-one contractors post record results and lift targets, workload flows straight into candidate demand: expect competition for project managers, site engineers and structural engineer jobs to intensify through the second half of 2026.
Ipsum acquires Energypeople to deepen power engineering capability
Engineering services group Ipsum has bought Colchester-based Energypeople, adding technical consultancy and engineering design services to its power division alongside its existing infrastructure delivery offering (Insider Media).
Hiring angle: Grid upgrades and energy infrastructure keep driving electrical and civil engineering vacancies, and acquisitions like this are often a response to a talent shortage: buying a business is sometimes the fastest way to hire a whole team. See our live civil engineering recruitment desk for current mandates.
Construction insolvencies pass 3,800 in a rolling year
The Insolvency Service recorded 3,805 construction insolvencies in the 12 months to June, around 17% of all insolvencies in England and Wales, with June failures up 4% on May at 309 (Construction News).
Hiring angle: Insolvency risk changes how engineers choose employers: candidates increasingly ask a recruitment agency to vet financial stability before moving, and salary benchmarking matters more than ever — our structural engineer salary guide is a good place to start.
Building Safety Act: proportionality changes and a telecoms exemption
The Government has confirmed it will remove most works carried out solely within residential units in higher-risk buildings from Category A, reducing Gateway documentation requirements, and from 1 September certain limited telecoms works to HRBs will no longer need building control procedural approval, subject to firestopping and competency conditions (Penningtons Manches Cooper).
Hiring angle: Even as the regime is streamlined, dutyholder competence requirements keep fire engineer vacancies and building-safety specialist roles among the hardest to fill in UK engineering jobs, and hiring lead times for these skills remain long.
Cladding remediation funding extended to buildings under 11 metres
Ministers have announced an expansion of the building safety programme extending cladding remediation funding to residential buildings under 11 metres, with applications opening on 17 August for an eight-week window under a risk-based prioritisation system (Construction News).
Hiring angle: A wider funded remediation pipeline means sustained demand for façade engineer jobs, cladding assessors and remediation project managers — a segment where headhunting is frequently the only way to reach experienced candidates.
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