The biggest construction companies in the UK, 2026
The top 50 UK contractors ranked by the turnover in their own filed Companies House accounts — not press releases or trade-survey returns. Contractors only: housebuilders are a different business and ranked separately, materials producers and one-project JVs are excluded, and where a group's UK arms file separately we say which entity is ranked.
What the filings show
UK contracting has no Big Four — it has a long, flat top. Morgan Sindall leads at £5.02B, but 21 firms clear £1B and the gaps between them are small, which is exactly what you'd expect in an industry that wins work project by project on low single-digit margins. Note the staff column: several £1B+ contractors directly employ only a few hundred people — the workforce is subcontracted, and the filed headcount tells you who actually carries the delivery risk.
The growth is in the ground and the grid, not the skyline. Mott MacDonald Bentley (+43%), Barhale (+34%), John Sisk & Son (+32%), M.V. Kelly (+31%) top the growth table — groundworks, water and industrial-services specialists riding infrastructure spend — and the infrastructure and industrial services firms on this list (Amey, M Group, FM Conway, Network Plus among 10) bill £6.83B between them.
The casualty list is real: McLaughlin & Harvey (-30%), Carey Group (-22%), Costain (-16%), Ardmore (-14%) all shrank by more than 5% year on year, and ISG — a top-ten contractor two years ago — isn't on the list at all, having entered administration in September 2024. In a sector where the median margin is thinner than a percentage point, a shrinking top line is rarely just a slow year.
Top 50 construction companies in the UK by filed turnover
Latest accounts filed as of June 2026 · refreshed monthly
| # | Firm | Turnover | YoY | Staff | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Morgan Sindall Listed construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall Group plc, consolidated — construction, infrastructure, fit out (Overbury), property services and urban regeneration. | £5.02B | — | — | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 02 | Balfour Beatty International infrastructure and construction group Balfour Beatty Group Limited, the UK group. The listed parent’s global accounts (including its large US business) are roughly double this and are not ranked. | £4.66B | +9% | — | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 03 | Kier UK construction and infrastructure group Kier Group plc, consolidated. | £4.08B | +3% | 6,000 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 04 | Keller specialist (geotechnical) Listed geotechnical specialist contractor Keller Group plc, consolidated — the world’s largest geotechnical contractor; the majority of group revenue is earned overseas. | £3.09B | +3% | 3,947 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 05 | Mace Construction and project management firm Mace Limited, consolidated — construction and consultancy. | £2.79B | +18% | 7,085 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 06 | Wates Family-owned construction and property group Wates Group Limited, consolidated. | £2.40B | +10% | 5,192 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 07 | Laing O'Rourke Multinational engineering and construction group Laing O’Rourke plc, the Europe hub consolidation; the group’s Australian hub files separately. | £2.16B | -10% | 6,363 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 08 | Galliford Try Listed British construction group Galliford Try Holdings plc, consolidated. | £1.88B | +6% | 4,296 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 09 | Amey infrastructure services Infrastructure and engineering services group Amey UK Limited, consolidated — highways, rail and complex facilities. | £1.85B | +1% | 10,393 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 10 | M Group infrastructure services PE-backed infrastructure services group M Group Limited, consolidated — utilities, transport and telecom infrastructure services. | £1.38B | — | 11,037 | 10-mo period to Mar 2025 |
| 11 | VolkerWessels UK Multidisciplinary engineering and construction contractor VolkerWessels UK Limited, consolidated (VolkerFitzpatrick, VolkerStevin, VolkerRail and siblings). | £1.49B | +4% | 3,967 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 12 | BAM (UK) Civil engineering and infrastructure contractor BAM Nuttall Limited, the civil-engineering arm; sibling BAM Construct & Ventures UK (£924M) files separately — Royal BAM publishes no single UK consolidation. | £1.48B | +8% | 3,643 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 13 | Bowmer + Kirkland Commercial construction and development group | £1.37B | +6% | 2,252 | FY to Aug 2025 |
| 14 | Skanska UK Commercial construction and infrastructure contractor Skanska UK plc, the UK group of Sweden’s Skanska AB. | £1.37B | +8% | 3,281 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 15 | Vinci Construction UK UK construction and engineering contractor Vinci Construction UK Limited; sibling Vinci arms (Taylor Woodrow civils among them) file separately — no UK-wide Vinci consolidation is filed. | £1.34B | — | 2,821 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 16 | J Murphy & Sons Civil engineering and construction contractor | £1.26B | -9% | 4,060 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 17 | Willmott Dixon Holding company for construction group Willmott Dixon Holdings Limited, consolidated. | £1.16B | -1% | 1,921 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 18 | McLaren Construction Commercial and residential building contractor | £1.12B | +21% | 1,082 | FY to Jul 2025 |
| 19 | Graham Holdco for a construction group John Graham Holdings Limited, consolidated. | £1.06B | -6% | 2,297 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 20 | Costain Listed construction and engineering group Costain Group plc, consolidated. | £1.05B | -16% | 3,049 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 21 | Winvic Commercial construction contractor Winvic Group Limited, consolidated — the dominant UK shed/industrial builder. | £1.02B | +6% | 587 | FY to Jan 2025 |
| 22 | Multiplex Specialised construction contractor Multiplex Construction Europe Limited, the UK arm of the Brookfield-owned group. | £973M | +25% | 701 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 23 | Sir Robert McAlpine Building and civil engineering contractor | £946M | +1% | 1,630 | FY to Oct 2025 |
| 24 | Robertson Holding company for a construction group Robertson Group (Holdings) Limited, consolidated. | £793M | -4% | 2,887 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 25 | TClarke specialist (M&E) Mechanical and electrical engineering contractor TClarke Contracting Limited. | £847M | — | 760 | 15-mo period to Mar 2025 |
| 26 | McAleer & Rushe Design and build construction contractor | £628M | +28% | 415 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 27 | John Sisk & Son Construction and civil engineering contractor The UK-registered contracting company of Ireland’s Sisk group. | £625M | +32% | 767 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 28 | McLaughlin & Harvey Construction and civil engineering group McLaughlin & Harvey Holdings Limited, consolidated. | £612M | -30% | 834 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 29 | FM Conway infrastructure services Highways and civil engineering contractor | £608M | +5% | 2,332 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 30 | Network Plus infrastructure services Utility and infrastructure services provider | £585M | +9% | 2,423 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 31 | Tilbury Douglas Building and civil engineering contractor Tilbury Douglas Construction Limited; a sibling engineering company (£111M) files separately. | £581M | +12% | 1,041 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 32 | Altrad Services industrial services Industrial and infrastructure support services | £551M | +13% | — | FY to Aug 2025 |
| 33 | M.V. Kelly specialist (groundworks) Family-owned civil engineering contractor | £504M | +31% | 327 | FY to May 2025 |
| 34 | Mott MacDonald Bentley specialist (water) Water sector civil engineering contractor A design-build joint venture; its co-owner J.N. Bentley (£510M) is not ranked separately to avoid double-counting. | £503M | +43% | — | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 35 | Ferrovial Construction UK Civil engineering and construction contractor The UK arm of Spain’s Ferrovial. | £498M | +2% | 582 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 36 | Severfield specialist (structural steel) Listed structural steelwork contractor Severfield plc, consolidated — the UK’s largest structural steelwork contractor. | £451M | -3% | 1,964 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 37 | Midgard Residential construction contractor The main-contracting company of the JRL Group. | £580M | — | — | 16-mo period to Apr 2025 |
| 38 | MWH Treatment specialist (water) Water infrastructure construction contractor | £431M | +25% | 785 | FY to Apr 2025 |
| 39 | Clancy Docwra infrastructure services Water infrastructure construction contractor The principal contracting company of the Clancy group. | £429M | +14% | 1,858 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 40 | Colas Rail infrastructure services Railway infrastructure and freight contractor Sibling Colas Limited (£258M, highways) files separately — no UK-wide Colas consolidation. | £426M | +5% | 1,434 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 41 | Bilfinger UK industrial services Industrial engineering and maintenance contractor | £418M | -0% | 3,124 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 42 | HG Construction Design and build main contractor | £387M | -0% | 326 | FY to Dec 2025 |
| 43 | Bouygues UK UK construction and property developer The UK building arm of France’s Bouygues. | £376M | +15% | 1,834 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 44 | Caddick Construction Construction and civil engineering contractor | £373M | +5% | 469 | FY to Aug 2025 |
| 45 | Keltbray specialist (demolition & enabling) Demolition and civil engineering subsidiary Keltbray Built Environment Limited. | £364M | +17% | 601 | FY to Oct 2024 |
| 46 | OCU infrastructure services Utilities and energy infrastructure contractor OCU Utility Services Limited. | £361M | +19% | 631 | FY to Apr 2025 |
| 47 | Glencar Privately-owned construction contractor | £359M | -10% | 293 | FY to Sept 2025 |
| 48 | NG Bailey specialist (M&E) Engineering and infrastructure services provider | £346M | +11% | 1,486 | FY to Feb 2025 |
| 49 | Ardmore Design and build main contractor Ardmore Group Limited, consolidated. | £346M | -14% | 638 | FY to Sept 2024 |
| 50 | M & J Evans specialist (groundworks) Groundworks and civil engineering contractor | £323M | -3% | 321 | FY to Dec 2024 |
The next 5
Firms ranked 51–55
| 51 | Octavius | £323M | +17% | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 52 | Carey Group specialist (groundworks) | £303M | -22% | FY to Sept 2025 |
| 53 | GMI Construction | £233M | +0% | FY to Sept 2025 |
| 54 | Barhale infrastructure services | £228M | +34% | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 55 | R.J. McLeod | £303M | — | 18-mo period to Apr 2025 |
The firms we can't rank
Construction's missing names are usually missing for a reason — and in this industry the reason is often the story.
- ISG — entered administration in September 2024 — the UK’s largest construction insolvency since Carillion
- Buckingham Group — entered administration in 2023
- Lendlease Construction (UK) — no UK construction filing with disclosed turnover in scope
- BAM (single UK figure) — Royal BAM’s two UK arms file separately; ranked on BAM Nuttall with BAM Construct footnoted
- Vinci (single UK figure) — Vinci’s UK arms file separately; ranked on Vinci Construction UK with siblings footnoted
How this list is built
Source. The latest annual accounts each firm filed at Companies House. Where a firm files consolidated group accounts, the group figure is used; the entity ranked is named under each firm. Where a firm filed a transition period longer or shorter than twelve months (flagged in the Accounts column), the table shows the filed figure but the firm is ranked on its annualised equivalent.
Who counts as a construction company. Building, civil-engineering and specialist contractors, plus infrastructure-services groups (tagged). We exclude housebuilders (a development business, ranked separately), materials producers and builders' merchants, design consultancies, facilities management, one-project joint ventures like Hinkley Point's Bylor (which would double-count their parents), and intra-group subsidiaries of ranked groups.
Scope. Rankings use each group's UK-registered filing. For UK arms of overseas groups (Skanska, BAM, Vinci, Ferrovial, Bouygues, Multiplex) that's the UK entity; for UK-headquartered groups with overseas work (Keller, Laing O'Rourke) the filed group figure includes it — the footnotes say which. Headcounts are hidden where a holding company disclosed only its own few staff rather than the group's.
Cadence. Rebuilt monthly as new accounts land. Spot a contractor we've missed or misread? Tell us — the methodology only works if it's challenged.
Quick answers
- What is the biggest construction company in the UK?
- Morgan Sindall is the UK's biggest construction company by filed turnover, reporting £5.02B in its latest accounts (FY to Dec 2025). Balfour Beatty's worldwide group is larger still, but most of its revenue is earned outside the UK — this list ranks its UK group filing.
- Why aren't Barratt, Taylor Wimpey or Persimmon on this list?
- They're housebuilders — developers that sell homes — rather than contractors that build for clients, and the two business models aren't comparable on turnover. Housebuilders are ranked separately; this list covers building, civil-engineering and specialist contractors.
- How many UK construction companies turn over more than £1 billion?
- 21 contractors on this list filed (or annualise to) turnover above £1B. Roughly a quarter of the top 50 are UK arms of overseas groups — Skanska, BAM, Vinci, Ferrovial, Bouygues and Multiplex among them.
- What happened to ISG?
- ISG — previously a top-ten UK contractor — entered administration in September 2024, the industry's largest failure since Carillion. It appears in the "firms we can't rank" section rather than the table: a reminder that construction turnover is not the same thing as financial health.