Kier’s £21.7m Edinburgh tower upgrades: safety and retrofit notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Kier Construction is set to secure a £21.7m contract from the City of Edinburgh Council to retrofit Craigmillar Court and Peffermill Court, two 15-storey 1968 tower blocks each containing 57 two-bedroom flats with no existing insulation. The works include extensive external wall insulation, flat-by-flat mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) to address damp and mould, and new fire doors plus sprinkler systems in every dwelling. Each block will also gain a dedicated firefighting lift and upgraded security via CCTV across all stairwells and common lobby landings.
Technical Brief
- £21.7m retrofit contract is being let via the Scottish Procurement Alliance Framework for Public Buildings.
- Kier’s appointment followed an initial pre-construction services agreement, implying early contractor involvement on design and phasing.
- Use of a framework route suggests streamlined procurement and standardised contract conditions for similar retrofit portfolios.
- Project is framed by the council as improving affordability and future-proofing, tying energy retrofit directly to housing policy.
Our Take
Kier Construction’s £21.7m Edinburgh contract sits alongside the £120m Darlington Economic Campus hub in our recent coverage, underlining that Kier North & Scotland is balancing complex refurbishment work with major new-build public estate projects.
The use of the Scottish Procurement Alliance Framework for Public Buildings Construction and Infrastructure signals that Craigmillar Court and Peffermill Court will likely act as reference schemes for other Scottish councils planning safety and sustainability upgrades to 1960s high-rise stock.
With Kier Group recently restructured into a single Kier Infrastructure unit and other streamlined divisions, this mid-scale Scottish tower-block upgrade provides a test of how efficiently the new operating model can deliver regulated, safety-critical residential work in the UK.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
QCDB-io
Comprehensive quality control database for manufacturing, tunnelling, and civil construction with UCS testing, PSD analysis, and grout mix design management.