Published Monday 6 July 2026 · By the JustEng team
A busy start to the month for UK engineering employers. A new steel tariff regime takes hold, Wales activates its Building Safety Act framework, HS2 quietly hits a genuine milestone at Old Oak Common, and the insolvency picture eases even as sub-contractors stay under margin pressure. Here is what mattered over the last few days and what it signals for hiring.
Steel tariffs bite from 1 July
The revised UK steel safeguard regime came into effect this month, with quotas cut by around 60 per cent across roughly 20 product categories and out-of-quota tariffs stepping up to 50 per cent. Arcadis flagged the move in its Summer 2026 UK construction market view as the single biggest cost signal of the quarter, warning that the floor price of UK steel will rise and squeeze fabricated packages hardest.
Hiring angle: expect fresh demand for structural engineers and estimators who can re-price steelwork under the new tariff regime, particularly on live tenders where margin was already thin.
Wales switches on the Building Safety Act
The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (Wales) Regulations 2025 and the Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2025 came into force on 1 July, extending the higher-risk buildings regime across the border. CMS’s annual review notes that the focus for 2026 has decisively shifted from understanding the legislation to actively demonstrating compliance, with Gateway 2 waits now down to about 13 weeks.
Hiring angle: Welsh HRB projects will pull on the same principal designer, fire and facade talent as English schemes — teams already recruiting for fire engineers and facade specialists should widen their brief to cover Cardiff and Swansea.
HS2 hits platforms at Old Oak Common
Engineers installed the first platforms at Old Oak Common in July, marking the shift from the 20-metre-deep box excavation into full platform-level civils on all six high-speed berths. HS2 Ltd’s Summer 2026 construction look-ahead confirms concreting and waterproofing of the twin-bore Euston tunnel continued to June, with civils now dominant for the rest of the year.
Hiring angle: the pivot from tunnelling to platform civils widens demand for permanent works, temporary works and rail-systems civil engineers and prompts steady vacancies through our jobs board.
Insolvencies ease but sub-contractors stay squeezed
Monthly construction insolvencies in England and Wales fell by nearly a third in May, with 281 firms collapsing versus 406 in April, according to Construction News. The rolling 12-month total to May sits at 3,803, six per cent below the year to May 2025 but still 18 per cent above pre-pandemic 2019. Fixed-price sub-contracts signed before inflation peaked continue to erode margins.
Hiring angle: counter-cyclical hiring in commercial and quantity surveying roles remains sensible — and permanent structural staff released by failing sub-contractors are the fastest lateral hires we are placing right now; salary benchmarks in our structural engineer salary guide reflect that pull.
Data-centre pipeline stays red-hot
Savills’ H1 2026 UK data-centre spotlight reports 180MW of new supply due to complete in 2026, only just below the 2025 record. Of the c.66MW scheduled for completion this year, 96 per cent is already pre-sold. Twenty-nine London schemes hold planning permission and are expected to break ground during 2026.
Hiring angle: M&E project directors, HV electrical designers and mission-critical commissioning engineers remain the single tightest sub-market in UK engineering — premium salaries continue to leak upward.
The Planning & Infrastructure Act keeps rolling out
Implementation of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 continues, with government estimating it will shave twelve months from the pre-application phase of major NSIPs and cap most legal challenges at two rounds, per the official gov.uk announcement. Combined authorities are drafting the first Spatial Development Strategies now.
Hiring angle: planning, transport-planning and DCO-experienced consulting engineers are in fresh demand at Tier 1 consultancies and public-sector delivery vehicles.
Hiring or moving in UK engineering? Employers can register a vacancy with our team and candidates are welcome to submit a CV for a confidential conversation. We recruit across civil, structural, fire, facade and forensic disciplines.