In a single week, UK construction handed out £1.65bn of new water work and watched four established firms hit distress. Anglian Water awarded a £1.5bn framework to two joint ventures and Costain took £150m from Thames Water, while Ardmore’s collapse forced a developer to restart a £500m London scheme, Bouygues UK’s four-year losses passed £200m, McGee slipped into the red, and Mansell Building Solutions filed to appoint administrators. The pipeline is at record strength and the balance sheets are under record strain, and both statements are true at the same time.
Two contradictory things happened in UK construction in the same few days, and neither cancels the other out. On one side, utilities were signing off major frameworks worth well over a billion pounds. On the other, a run of established contractors was posting heavy losses or heading into administration.
It is the kind of week that resists a tidy headline. The order books say the market is busy. The insolvency notices say the market is fragile. This is a straight account of what was awarded and what failed, laid side by side, because the gap between the two is the story.
The awards
£1.65bn of water work let in a matter of days
Anglian Water confirmed a £1.5bn Major Projects Framework, splitting it across two joint ventures. Ferrovial Construction and MWH Treatment took one contract, while VolkerFitzpatrick and VolkerStevin Infrastructure took the other. The framework runs for an initial five years, with an option to extend to 2036, and covers Anglian’s largest water and wastewater schemes across the current AMP8 investment period and beyond.
In the same week, Costain landed a £150m programme from Thames Water, delivering wastewater treatment upgrades across 15 sites in the Thames Valley under the utility’s AMP8 Wastewater Asset Assurance Programme. Regulated water spending is one of the clearest sources of large, bankable UK workload right now, and between them these two awards put more than £1.6bn of it into contractors’ hands in days.
The distress, in four names
One collapse, one restart, and two sets of red numbers
Set against those awards, the same window brought a cluster of financial trouble. The most visible was in London, where developer SevenCapital restarted its £500m 100 Kensington scheme, a 462-home development, by taking construction in-house through a group company after the administration of its contractor Ardmore. The project is more than 30% complete, and its centrepiece tower is due to top out in October.
The accounts told a similar story elsewhere. Bouygues UK’s cumulative pre-tax losses over four years passed £200m, after its 2025 loss widened to £76m from £32m, which the firm attributed to subcontractor failures, labour availability and building-safety liabilities. The distress was not confined to the largest firms, and the specialist end of the market felt it too.
- Ardmore / SevenCapital. Developer stepped in to restart the £500m 100 Kensington scheme after its contractor’s administration.
- Bouygues UK. Four-year losses topped £200m, with the 2025 pre-tax loss widening to £76m on turnover of £395m.
- McGee. Posted a £2.8m pre-tax loss after a £3.6m bad debt from the insolvency of a London hotel client.
- Mansell Building Solutions. The light gauge steel frame specialist filed a notice to appoint administrators, six months after opening an expanded factory.
The awards and the failures, read side by side each week
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How both can be true at once
A strong pipeline does not fix a thin balance sheet
The two halves of the week are not in tension once you look at the mechanics. A record order book is a revenue signal. Administrations and losses are cash and margin signals, and in construction those move independently. A firm can hold a healthy pipeline and still fail if the work it already won is loss-making or if a client further up the chain does not pay.
That is visible in the causes named this week. McGee’s loss traced to a client insolvency on a hotel job, not to a shortage of work. Bouygues pointed to subcontractor failures and building-safety liabilities. The awards and the distress describe the same market from two angles: plenty of work to win, and very little margin for error in delivering it. Both readings are accurate, and holding them together is closer to the truth than either alone.
What it means for contractors
Counterparty risk is now part of every bid
The practical takeaway from a week like this is that the risk sitting inside your supply chain matters as much as the work on your order book. When a client or a tier-one above you fails, a healthy pipeline offers little protection, as the subcontractors caught by Ardmore’s collapse found. McGee’s own loss came from exactly that route, a client going under mid-project.
None of the firms in trouble this week was short of work. What caught them was a bad debt, a legacy liability, or a cash-flow squeeze from delayed projects. In a market this busy and this tight at once, tracking the financial health of the people you contract with is no longer a back-office nicety. It is part of pricing the job.
| Firm(s) | What happened | Value | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ferrovial / MWH, VolkerFitzpatrick / VolkerStevin | Anglian Water Major Projects Framework | £1.5bn | Award |
| Costain | Thames Water wastewater upgrades, 15 sites | £150m | Award |
| Ardmore / SevenCapital | Developer restarts scheme after contractor administration | £500m (GDV) | Distress |
| Bouygues UK | Four-year losses top £200m | £76m (2025 loss) | Distress |
| McGee | Loss after bad debt on hotel client insolvency | £2.8m loss | Distress |
| Mansell Building Solutions | Files notice to appoint administrators | ~£13m turnover | Distress |
Anglian Water confirmed a £1.5bn Major Projects Framework, split between two joint ventures: Ferrovial Construction with MWH Treatment on one contract, and VolkerFitzpatrick with VolkerStevin Infrastructure on the other. It runs five years, extendable to 2036. Separately, Costain took a £150m Thames Water programme to upgrade wastewater treatment across 15 sites in the Thames Valley. (Source)
Work on the £500m (by gross development value) 100 Kensington scheme, a 462-home project in West London, was paused when its main contractor Ardmore went into administration. Developer SevenCapital has restarted the job by taking on the main contractor role through an existing group company, Seven Capital (Woodrow). The scheme is more than 30% complete and its 29-storey Oria tower is due to top out in October. (Source)
McGee reported a £2.8m pre-tax loss for the year to 30 November 2025, driven by an exceptional £3.6m bad-debt charge arising from the insolvency of a client on a major London hotel scheme. Turnover fell 11% to £134m, and the result reversed a £5.3m pre-tax profit the year before. The firm said the underlying business remained sound and that it is targeting a return to previous profit levels. (Source)
Bouygues UK’s cumulative pre-tax losses over four years passed £200m after its 2025 loss widened to £76m from £32m, even as turnover rose 15% to £395m. The firm attributed the deterioration to subcontractor performance, labour availability and post-completion building-safety liabilities, and recorded long-term provisions of £202m tied to building-safety warranty obligations. (Source)
The Oldham-based light gauge steel frame and modern methods of construction specialist filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, announced on 19 August, roughly six months after opening an expanded 45,000 sq ft factory and headquarters. The family-run firm cited prolonged difficult trading conditions and cash-flow pressure caused by delays to existing and new projects. A notice of intention provides temporary protection while directors consider options. (Source)
Because a full order book and a healthy balance sheet are different things. Revenue signals like framework awards move independently from the cash and margin signals behind insolvencies. UK construction runs on thin margins, long payment terms and, increasingly, retrospective building-safety liability, so a firm can be busy and still fail on a bad debt, a legacy claim or a delayed payment. That structural fragility is why the sector has led UK insolvency tables for years even through strong demand. (Source)
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Construction Enquirer, two JVs bag £1.5bn Anglian Water deal
Construction News, Costain lands £150m Thames Water package
Construction Enquirer, client restarts Ardmore £500m Kensington job
Construction Enquirer, Bouygues UK losses top £200m
Construction News, McGee plunges into the red
Construction Enquirer, Mansell Building Solutions files administration notice
