Science jobs put Laing O’Rourke top of the pile

A pair of biosecurity contracts propelled Laing O’Rourke to the top of the latest monthly contractor league table.

The tier one contractor was chosen by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) as main works contractor for two science buildings on the National Biosecurity Campus in Weybridge, Surrey.

The site is home to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratories.

The projects, valued at £408m and £511m respectively, were procured via call-offs from a framework agreement.

Work on one building is due to complete in August 2033, while the other is expected to be finished in February 2032.

The contractor will deliver the projects by taking RIBA Stage 3 designs to RIBA Stage 4 and beyond. This includes construction, commissioning and handover of the completed facilities.

Laing O’Rourke is managing an integrated, multidisciplinary supply chain for both schemes.

The contractor finished tenth the month before, and previously headed the monthly league table in August 2022.

Bowmer & Kirkland rose one place to the silver medal position with three jobs worth a combined £233.3m, according to data from Glenigan.

Among its wins in June was a £103.6m office fit-out at Port Hamilton in Edinburgh for Drum Property Group.

The contractor had previously worked on the scheme under a preconstruction services agreement.

Third-placed Wates picked up 13 jobs worth a combined £193.4m.

Among them was a £14.8m rapid deployment cell contract at HMP Albany on the Isle of Wight under a call-off from the Ministry of Justice’s £2.5bn Constructor Services Framework.

Fellow tier ones McLaren and Kier finished fourth and fifth respectively.

McLaren won two contracts worth a total £120.5m, just ahead of Kier with £118.4m from nine jobs.

Balfour Beatty picked up three civils contracts to finish in sixth place on £93m.

Hill and Royal Bam also won three jobs apiece, worth a combined £89.9m and £88m respectively.

They finished just ahead of Winvic in ninth place with £86.7m from three contracts.

Rounding off June’s top 10 was McAleer & Rushe with a single £70m job.

May’s monthly winner Morgan Sindall finished just outside June’s top 10 although it picked up 21 contracts.

McAleer & Rushe was one of three survivors from May’s monthly top 10, alongside Laing O’Rourke and Bowmer & Kirkland.

In the rolling annual table, Kier won £2.74bn worth of jobs from July 2024 to June 2025, picking up 109 contracts to lead the table for the fourth month in a row.

Morgan Sindall signed 263 contracts in this period – more than any other firm in the rolling annual top 10 – but the firm had to settle for the silver medal with a total value of £2.54bn.

Laing O’Rourke was snapping at its heels with £2.41bn from just 10 deals, rising two places to third.

Royal Bam and Mace each fell one place. The former won 35 jobs worth £2.07bn and Mace signed on the dotted line 18 times in the past 12 months to finish fifth on £1.94bn.

Ferrovial, Winvic and McLaren’s positions remained unchanged from the previous rolling annual table.

But there were two new entrants. Galliford Try’s 143 contracts saw it finish ninth on £1.28bn, just ahead of Bowmer & Kirkland with 30 jobs worth a combined £1.22bn.