The Week That Was - 9 January 2026

Welcome to The Week That Was, a round-up of key events in the construction sector over the last seven days.

Government Department saves landmark example of "brutalist" architecture

The School of Art Building at the University of Wolverhampton, also known as the MK Building, has been saved from the wrecking ball after being granted Grade II listed status.  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport acted on advice from Historic England after more than 7000 people signed a petition objecting to the University's plan to tear it down.    

Deborah Williams of Historic England has said: "The striking Brutalist design, combined with the important social history of the British black art movement mean the building meets the high bar for post-war listing and I'm pleased DCMS agreed with our recommendation to recognise the significance of this distinctive piece of twentieth-century history."

Brutalism is a style of architecture that came to prominence in the post-war reconstruction era, that often uses unpainted concrete or brick and angular geometric shapes.

More on this story here [Requires Subscription] and here.

Building Safety Regulator opens the door for staged G2 applications on all higher risk buildings

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has issued new guidance on "staged" Gateway 2 Applications under the Building Safety Act.  In guidance published on 18 December, the BSR says it will now accept staged applications for all higher risk buildings (i.e. those which are at least 7 stories or 18m).  

Previously, staged applications – separating groundwork and foundations from the structure above ground – were restricted to "complex structures" with multiple towers, public buildings or multiple basement levels.  In a staged application, each stage is assessed and approved separately with the result that developers can seek early approval for groundwork and foundations and begin work while above ground designs are finalised and submitted for approval later.  

Until now, "non-complex" higher risk buildings had to seek full development approval at Gateway 2 (approval to build) before any work could be started.  This meant that projects had to be put on hold because of a bottleneck in the BSR assessing applications at Gateway 2.   

More on this here.

Construction output declines in December 2025

On 7 January 2026, the S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (the PMI) reported a sharp fall in housing, commercial and civil engineering activity in December 2025.

The PMI is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 150 construction companies, and it shows that "UK construction companies experienced another sharp downturn in business activity and incoming new work at the end of 2025". Civil engineering was the weakest performing category of construction activity in December. The PMI says, "[a]necdotal evidence suggested that fragile confidence among clients and subdued underlying demand had resulted in lower workloads at the end of the year", and that "many firms also noted that delayed investment decisions ahead of the Budget in November had weighed on their sales pipelines".

For further details see here. 

Consultation on changes to the Construction Industry Scheme

On 6 January 2026, HMRC opened a public consultation on its proposed changes to the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) regulations. The Government intends to amend the CIS regulations to exempt payments made to local authorities or public bodies from the scope of the CIS, and to require local construction contractors to file a nil return when they have not paid any subcontractors in a month, unless they have notified HMRC in advance that they will not make any such payments that month. The consultation closes on 3 February 2026, and the final CIS regulations come into force on 6 April 2026.

Find out more here. 

New High-Risk Building Regulations come into Force in Wales This Year

The Building (Higher-Risk Buildings Procedures) (Wales) Regulations 2025 come into force in Wales from 1 July 2026, which introduces a locally administered regime for higher risk buildings that strengthens safety, transparency and accountability from design through to completion. It applies to buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys with residential accommodation, including care homes, children’s homes and hospitals, but excludes hotels, secure institutions and military barracks. Clients, principal designers and principal contractors must obtain formal approval before both construction and occupation, submitting full plans, prescribed information and competence declarations, with the local authority consulting fire safety enforcing authorities and the sewerage undertaker. Decisions are targeted within 12 weeks for new HRBs and eight weeks for work to existing HRBs. Changes during construction are classified and controlled (recordable, notifiable and major) to maintain compliance. Dutyholders must keep a secure, accurate, up to date digital “golden thread” and hand over safety information on completion, alongside mandatory reporting of safety occurrences. Completion and partial completion certificates are required for lawful occupation. Enforcement risks include refusal, stop notices, criminal liability and commercial delay. Transitional arrangements generally keep sufficiently progressed projects started before 1 July 2026 under the existing regime.

For further details see here [Requires Subscription] and here.

Latest NHBC Guidance Released

The NHBC has released its 2026 Technical Standards which set the technical and performance requirements for securing NHBC warranty and insurance. These Standards apply to new homes where work on foundations commence on or after 1 January 2026. Changes from the previous edition are largely incremental and editorial: clearer cross referencing and numbering, removal of some building control guidance to emphasise the standards’ warranty role, and updates reflecting current practice (for example, galvanising hot rolled structural steelwork and guidance on rendering in cold weather). Non compliance can escalate costs and delay programmes on housebuilding projects.

See the NHBC website for further details.

With thanks to Chris Brewin, Jonathan Carrington and Brendan Marrinan