Names of companies have been published for the first time today after HMRC was given the power to publish the names to deter UK taxpayers from deliberately defaulting on their tax obligations.

Rochester-based Gatemain Contractors Ltd, property maintenance trader Mr David Alan Jay of Essex and pipework specialist Mr S Stewart of Liverpool are all included on the list of tax defaulters.

In today’s always-connected world, contractors can use technologies to gather data about fleets. In addition to simply using the tech to give drivers assignments and improve dispatching, systems can also integrate with backoffice applications for project management, billing, and HR (human resources), among others, to improve processes across the entire company.

Balfour Beatty, Bam Construct, Interserve, Kier, Laing O’Rourke and a consortium including Morgan Sindall are all in the mix for the lucrative four-year framework, which carries an optional two-year extension.

Work worth an estimated £100m-£150m each year will be carried out for hospitals across Scotland, potentially totalling £900m.

A huge section of roofing covering part of the defunct nuclear power plant at Chernobyl has collapsed under the weight of snow.

Officials immediately denied any threat of radiation even though the accident involved a cover on part of the workings of Reactor Number 4 which exploded in 1986 in the world's worst atomic disaster.

The UK’s main warranty provider and standard setting body for new homes has also axed its resolution charge of £350 for each visit following a significant drop in requests to resolve disputes between builders and homeowners.

It will stop charging for resolutions backdated to 1 January 2013 and will offer refunds for any charges made since then.

New figures produced by NHBC show the number of disputes investigated by the organisation has dropped by around 60 per cent from a peak of nearly 8,500 in 2008 to under 3,500 in 2012.

Many construction companies use disparate technology for different pieces of the business. Flowing data from one system to the next can improve processes significantly, reducing the amount of manual input required in the office. As such, more technology providers are coming together to integrate systems.

This week, Viewpoint Construction Software, www.viewpointcs.com, Portland, Ore, and JB Knowledge Technologies, www.jbknowledge.com, Bryan, Texas, which provides the SmartBidNet platform, have announced a new partnership.

While the Leveson inquiry into press standards has received mass publicity from all quarters and demands from some 'celebrities' to subject journalist to everything bar trial by ordeal, a more insidious and damaging scandal in the construction industry is attracting only a few passing mentions in specialist press and the tabloids likely to be found gracing the brew tables in site cabins (that's not being snobbish about site cabins: I have a theory that the size of your newspaper reflects the amount of free time you have to read it, as well as the space to open it!).

I am referring, of course, to the affair of the blacklist of names held by the now-defunct Consulting Association prior to its seizure in 2009 by the Office of the Information Commissioner. A number of leading contractors have admitted using the services of the organisation, including for contracts on the Olympic sites, although they deny using it to blacklist workers.

A Greater Manchester housing organisation has re-roofed 1,000 properties with Marley Eternit’s pollution busting EcoLogic tiles over the past four years, as part of an ongoing planned roofing replacement programme.

New Charter Homes is a not for profit organisation owning and maintaining 14,700 properties in Tameside in Greater Manchester.  The innovative housing organisation was one of the first in the country to see the potential of using EcoLogic roof tiles on an ongoing re-roofing scheme.

HSE construction chief Philip White has told that he hoped to present the package - which will make substantial changes to Construction Design and Management regulations - to the board by spring.

CDM regulations place legal duties on virtually all construction workers and aim to ensure staff are equipped to properly manage risks in the workplace.

A new training course for would-be scaffolders is to be launched.

Astra Access Safety Training is offering unemployed people in the Yorkshire area the opportunity to build a future in the scaffolding industry.

The project will recruit trainees for a diploma level 1 scaffolding course which provides the skills and experience required to move on to an CISRS (Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme) qualification after finding employment in the scaffolding and construction related industries.