TSL Takes September Contracts Crown With £280m Agratas Battery Plant

TSL has topped September's UK contracts league after landing the £280m Agratas battery plant job in Somerset, replacing Sir Robert McAlpine on the project.

The valuation comes from construction intelligence group Barbour ABI. The official contract sum has not been disclosed. TSL, a specialist shed and data centre builder, now leads the monthly ranking of contractors by value of work won.

Who else made the September top 10?

Winvic claimed second place. The logistics specialist secured warehouse jobs at two sites:

• Symmetry Park, for client Tritax Big Box
• Plot 6 at SEGRO's Northampton Gateway development

Willmott Dixon ranked third with a clutch of jobs totalling £183m. That haul did double duty: it lifted the privately owned builder to the top of the rolling 12-month league, edging Kier out of pole position.

Is the wider market growing?

Barely. The top 50 contractors secured £3.14bn of work in September, a shade ahead of August's £3.12bn, according to the Barbour ABI data.

The total came from 110 projects, down from 126 the previous month. Larger awards propped up the value of work won even as project numbers fell.

The September figures point to a market where value is concentrating in fewer, bigger awards — and where a single mega-scheme such as Agratas can decide who leads the monthly table. With McAlpine off the Somerset job and TSL on it, the league table now reflects a specialist contractor's ability to absorb one of the largest industrial awards of the month.