The Exchange is open: three to teach, three to learn

This week's question: what actually got you your last promotion?

• I moved company. The step up was somewhere else
• Someone senior backed me and made the case
• I delivered something visible and asked for it
• The person above me left

Vote on this week's question

Vote with one tap, and read my take on Friday: community.lechley.com/question

From my desk

Week two of the data centre search. The brief went live on Monday after a session with the client's UK Managing Director, and Tuesday turned into seven back-to-back conversations with senior operators, two of them dialling in from Dubai and Riyadh. Friday was the first formal catch-up with the client on market response. The pattern is the one I expected: the people who have delivered hyperscale work in the UK are a short list, and most of them are busy.

Alongside it, a specialist electrical and energy contractor opened a conversation about a Commercial Director appointment, and I spent Wednesday morning with ProAge, who research how organisations use experience across age groups. That conversation matters for the Exchange, further down.

The market observation this week is the gap between the two sets of numbers everyone quotes. The ONS says output edged up in July. Glenigan says starts are down a fifth on the year and residential starts down 36%. Both are right. Output measures work already on site; starts measure the work that follows it. If you are weighing a move into housing-led contracting, the second number is the one to read.

The week in construction

• Construction output rose 0.1% in July but fell 0.5% across the three months to July, with private housing new work down 4.9% and repair and maintenance up 0.8%. The monthly rise is noise; the three-month line and the housing number are the trend. Repair and maintenance quietly growing is where regional contractors are keeping teams busy. Source: PBC Today
• Glenigan has construction starts down 20% on the year in the three months to August, with residential down 36% and non-residential up 6% on the quarter, led by offices. The South East is down 43% and the West Midlands 41%. The regional gap matters more than the national line. If you work in one of those two regions, expect hiring to stay defensive into 2027; London offices are the exception. Source: Construction News
• NHS Shared Business Services has pushed the tender for its £750m Public Sector Construction Works 2 framework from 7 September to mid or late November, with submissions due 8 January 2027 and contracts starting December 2027. Bid teams built for an autumn submission now have a Christmas one. Healthcare work-winning and preconstruction leaders are secure for the winter; the pressure lands in the first quarter. Source: Construction News
• Sizewell C has awarded G4S a ten-year facilities management contract with a two-year extension option, mobilising around 150 people this year and up to 400 over the life of the deal, most of them in Suffolk. Nuclear hiring is moving from build to operate, and it comes with twelve years of visibility. A hard services career at Sizewell now has a longer runway than most main contractor roles on the same site. Source: New Civil Engineer
• M&J Evans lifted turnover 15% to £374.3m and more than doubled pre-tax profit to £8m in 2025, with the order book up to £537m and a 28.2% bid win rate. Alex Clack has succeeded Chris Southgate as Chief Executive and an eighth region, the South East, opens this year. A groundworks contractor doubling profit in a housing slump, by moving into new regions and winning more of what it bids. New regions create regional director seats. Watch the South East launch. Source: Construction Enquirer

People on the move

• Seb Fossey becomes Group Chief Executive of Permasteelisa Group on 28 September, from McGee, where he was Group Managing Director after joining as Operations Director in 2017, following more than fifteen years at Laing O'Rourke. Peter Bacon steps back from executive duties and stays as Chairman. (Source: Construction Enquirer, 9 Sep)
• Mike King joins BAM UK & Ireland as Regional Director for Scotland on 17 September, from Robertson, where he was Executive Technical Director and a board member with responsibility across its eight regional construction businesses. (Source: Building)
• Lieutenant General (Retd) Sir David Eastman joins Mott MacDonald as Global Defence Capability Director, from the British Army, where he was Deputy Chief of the General Staff. He is based in Brisbane and works alongside Mitch Mitchell, the firm's global market lead for defence and security. (Source: Mott MacDonald, 9 Sep)

Other areas of interest

Behind the scenes this week: the Exchange went live on Thursday at community.lechley.com/exchange. The idea is old and the mechanics are new. You write six lines: three things you could teach someone from a different generation, and three you want to learn from one. The site proposes up to five matches with a note on why, you pick a time, and one tap books a half-hour conversation. Contact details are shared only once both sides agree.

It grew out of an introduction from Lancaster University Management School in August and a long conversation with ProAge on Wednesday. Both are research partners, and the participation data they see is anonymised. Personal topics count as much as technical ones. Pricing a job and reading a programme sit alongside handling a difficult conversation and planning the next ten years.

The ProAge conversation went further than the Exchange. ProAge is a charity and social enterprise working on age inclusion at work, and we are looking at a joint project for people in physically demanding construction roles: a route to extend a working life by moving part of it into mentoring and teaching. Employers keep skills and knowledge that would otherwise walk out of the gate, and pass them to the next intake. The individual eases the physical demands of a job they love while still contributing what they know. ProAge have written a case study on construction careers, worth ten minutes.

You do not need to be senior and you do not need to be young. Thirty minutes and a willingness to talk. If you have closed a final account or run a site, someone starting out wants to hear how. If you have never used the tools they take for granted, they can return the favour. Write your six lines here.

New on the community

• The Great Water Reset: what five new CEOs in twelve months tells us about leadership in UK water (Thoughts)
• Gordon Brown is still at the table. Your retired directors are not (Thoughts)
• Prime Minister Burnham and the built environment: what a place-led government could mean for UK construction (Thoughts)
• Construction starts down 20% on the year, and the regional gap is widening (News)

All of it free at community.lechley.com.

One useful thing

Two years of accounts, not one. This week's community question asked whether you would join a contractor that has just posted a loss. My answer, published on Saturday, comes down to three free checks before the first interview. Read the last two sets of accounts at Companies House and compare creditors due within a year against current assets. Look at who is paying them, because a public framework client is a different risk to a private developer's cash flow. Then ask plainly why the seat is empty. One loss is a story. Two losses with shrinking cash is a pattern. Read the full take.

What I'm working on

Still live and moving: the Operations Manager UK appointment for an international main contractor delivering data centres for hyperscale clients. The role reports to the UK Managing Director, leads Project Directors across three to five schemes nationally, and grows with a secured pipeline heading towards £300m to £400m a year. Retained exclusively with Lechley. Week two has confirmed how short the list of leaders with delivered UK hyperscale experience is. If you are on it, or you know who is, I would value the conversation.