Balfour Beatty to nearly double power workforce to 6,000 by 2030

Balfour Beatty plans to nearly double its power project workforce to 6,000 people by 2030, according to an investor presentation delivered yesterday. The combined direct and supply chain headcount sits at around 3,200 this year. The 2030 target would be four times the number deployed in 2024.

The expansion rides on Britain's biggest grid build-out in more than 70 years. Network owners are preparing to pump around £80bn into transmission infrastructure by 2031. Balfour expects the workload to stretch well beyond the decade's end, pointing to £89bn of investment already identified for the period after 2030.

The contractor is positioning itself for a major share. Its backing includes long-term frameworks (multi-year agreements that guarantee work with network owners), specialist crews and its own steel tower manufacturing business.

What does the expansion look like in numbers?

The figures behind the push are large and moving fast:

• Power order book: £2.1bn, a five-fold increase since the first half of 2023
• Awarded pipeline: a further £6bn–£8bn
• First-half power revenue: £366m, up 130% on the same period in 2023
• Market share: an estimated quarter of the UK power transmission market in 2025

That revenue growth is the clearest signal. A 130% jump in six months, on a base of £366m, shows the spending boom has already reached Balfour's books rather than sitting in future projections.

What does this change for the UK grid?

The spending surge will fund new substations, overhead lines, underground cables and converter stations (plants that convert electricity between AC and DC) as Britain connects new generation and strengthens ageing networks.

Demand drivers extend beyond the clean-power agenda. Growing loads from electric vehicles, heating and data centres are expected to sustain the workload alongside the push for greater energy security.

Hereford factory scales up

Balfour is also cranking up production at its Painter Brothers factory in Hereford, which supplies steel towers and substation structures. Annual manufacturing capacity is planned to rise from 10,000 tonnes to 15,000 tonnes. That follows a doubling from 5,000 tonnes in 2023.

The business is currently supplying more than 1,500 towers for Balfour projects. In-house steel fabrication gives the contractor a supply buffer at a moment when grid programs across Europe are competing for the same transmission components.

With £89bn of post-2030 investment already identified, Balfour's bet is that the grid boom is not a peak but a plateau — and it is staffing and manufacturing accordingly.