Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group operating in construction services, professional services, support services and infrastructure investments, announced this week that it has been awarded a £64 million electrification contract in China, which along with recent wins in Sweden and Germany, totals £188 million of international rail contracts.

In China, Balfour Beatty Rail has secured a £64 million electrification contract for the Xinxiang-Heze-Ranzhou-Rizhao railway for the Ministry of Railways of China. The 616-kilometre, double-track, passenger and freight line project includes the delivery of overhead contact line and traction substations. The contract is due for completion in the summer of 2010.

The Swedish rail administration, Banverket, awarded Balfour Beatty Rail the £82 million railway maintenance contract for 1,270 kilometres in the Västra Götaland region in three separate contracts. This is the largest operational area for which Banverket has so far awarded a contract.

The turnkey maintenance contracts are scheduled to start on 1st September 2010 and are for five years with two further one-year options. The project involves the preventative and corrective maintenance of track, overhead line (OHL), signalling and telecoms, incident management and snow clearance.

In Germany, Balfour Beatty Rail and its recently-acquired track business, Schreck-Mieves, secured two multi-disciplinary contracts totalling £39 million, the latest multi-disciplinary contracts to be won in line with the strategy of providing a complete service for railway infrastructure. The works include catenary and 50 HZ installations for the Coswig-Dresden Neustadt line and the same scope plus track for the Leipzig-Leutzsch-Plagwitz line.

Commenting today Balfour Beatty Chief Executive, Ian Tyler said:

"We are delighted to have been awarded these contracts which utilise Balfour Beatty's multi-disciplinary rail skills and highlight our customers' confidence in our ability to deliver complex rail projects."

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Kier Group , the construction giant, has announced today the appointment of Paul Sheffield to succeed John Dodds as Group chief executive. After nearly forty years with the Group, John Dodds intends to step down as chief executive and from the Board at the end of March 2010.

Paul Sheffield (48) joined Kier as a graduate civil engineer in 1983. He gained extensive experience in UK and international contracting and was appointed managing director of Kier Construction in 2001 and joined the Kier Regional board in 2004. He was appointed to the Group Board in October 2005 and currently has responsibility for the Group's construction, infrastructure and overseas businesses.

John Dodds, chief executive, commented: “I’ve worked with Paul for over 25 years and I am absolutely convinced that he is the right man to lead Kier into the future. Paul is highly talented and I look forward to working with him to ensure a seamless transition during the lead up to my retirement.”

Phil White, chairman, commented: “Following a thorough selection process of internal and external candidates, we are delighted to appoint Paul Sheffield as John’s successor. We believe that Paul’s experience, skills and intimate knowledge of the business provides a very firm foundation for building on the excellent work that John has achieved. I would very much like to thank John for the leadership, commitment and direction he has shown Kier in his seven years as chief executive.”

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Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing hotel chain, has announced the exchange of 10 new hotels at a combined investment value of £47 million. Giving the hotel company an additional 857 rooms, the expansion will also create 250 jobs, with all entry level staff being recruited through its employment partner, Job Centre Plus.

The new hotels will be located in:

Edinburgh Rose St £2.9m

Edinburgh Waterloo Place £8.0m

High Wycombe Octagon £6.5m

Ipswich £3.7m

Llanelli £2.0m

London Ealing £6.9m

Manchester Piccadilly £7.9m

Newbury £2.7m

Newcastle Under Lyme £3m

Wadebridge £3m

Total £46.6m

Upon construction, these sites will add 857 rooms to Travelodge's existing 27,000 room portfolio. The new exchanges include new sites in Edinburgh and Manchester, building on the budget hotel company's strategy of moving into the major UK cities. Travelodge has also gained its first hotels in High Wycombe, London Ealing, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Wadebridge.

Travelodge's Managing Director for Development, Paul Harvey said: "With 60 exchanges announced in 2009, we have now signed more hotels this year than ever before. Whilst the property market is still challenging we have been able to add some fantastic sites to our estate. With this selection of hotels, we have managed to enter new towns for the first time and also build on our strength in the major cities.

"We are now the biggest hotel brand in Edinburgh having doubled our room stock in the city in the last 24 months and now operate eight sites in Manchester."

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The Queen is outlined the Government’s priorities for the coming Parliamentary year in the Queen’s Speech today at the official state opening of Parliament.

Economic recovery was highlighted as a key priority for the Government. Legislation such as the Financial Services Bill will transform the way the financial sector is policed and empower consumers of financial services, while other Bills will seek to reduce Government debt and promote growth and jobs in key sectors such as digital communications.

The Queen said:“My Government’s overriding priority is to ensure sustained growth to deliver a fair and prosperous economy for families and businesses, as the British economy recovers from the global economic downturn. Through active employment and training programmes, restructuring the financial sector, strengthening the national infrastructure and providing responsible investment, my Government will foster growth and employment.”

13 Bills and 33 draft amendmenrdents were outlined. The 13 Bills were as follows, click on them to find out more:

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The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has warned that the end of the Government's stamp duty holiday on properties costing up to £175,000 ,will hit the housing market hardest in regions that are already failing to benefit from the recovery.

RICS said surveyors in the West Midlands, East Midlands, Wales and Scotland were all expecting there to be a drop in activity in the market when the level at which the tax kicks in returns to £125,000 at the end of this year.

The average property price in all of these regions falls between the current stamp duty threshold of £175,000 and the old one of £125,000.

Wales and the East Midlands still reporting house price falls than those who were seeing rises, while in the West Midlands a balance of just 3% of surveyors reported price rises.The figures are in stark contrast to London where a balance of 95% of surveyors said the cost of property was increasing during October.

the majority of chartered surveyors did not think the end of the stamp duty holiday would have a distorting effect on the market.especially those in London and the South East because the exemption has had little benefit in these regions as the average house price is well above the temporary £175,000 threshold.

Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist, said: "At the time of its introduction, we did question how great an impact this policy would have and judging by the fact that only surveyors in certain parts of the country are particularly concerned about the ending of the holiday, it could be said that some areas of the UK hardly even noticed the change."

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