Richborough Connection ‘contingency plan’ following collapse of construction giant Carillion

Carillion

A scheme to build a power line between substations in Canterbury and Richborough is one of the projects affected by news that construction giant Carillion has gone into liquidation.

The building firm, with Eltel Networks, won a £38 million contract in 2016 to carry out the scheme for National Grid.

The scheme was approved by the the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,in August 2017 and work started last October.

But today it has been revealed that Carillion is to go into liquidation after racking up huge debts and losing money on large contracts.

Thousands of jobs are at risk after talks between the company, lenders and the government did not result in a deal.

The company has 43,000 staff worldwide – 20,000 in the UK and thousands employed through its smaller firms.

Carillion contracts included schools, MoD properties and HS2. The firm also built Westwood Cross shopping centre.

A spokesman for National Grid said: “National Grid has contingency plans in place for all its projects with Carillion, using alternative suppliers if necessary. We believe that these plans mean we will be able to keep any disruption to a minimum.”

The government has pledged to fund the continuation of public services that had been awarded to Carillion but opposition members have raised questions over why contracts were agreed despite profit warnings being issued by the company since last July.

2 Comments

  1. Will this mean that Westwood Cross will have to closed down. ? I Jest. Is this not the same company that were going to build the shacks opposite Westwood Cross. ?

Comments are closed.