The month ended with Brexit putting question marks over the UK economy and the implications for construction, but there was plenty else going on as well.
Housing
Construction firm Keepmoat and Sigma Capital have signed an £800 million deal to build 5,000 new homes for rent across England over the next five years.
The homes will be built as part of a private residential scheme that Sigma will manage, with the two, three and four-bedroom homes being constructed in the north-west, Yorkshire, the Midlands and north of London.
Keepmoat chief executive Dave Sheridan said: "The partnership will deliver great quality market-rented homes alongside our Keepmoat homes for sale, which will allow the pace of housing delivery on strategic sites to be increased to deliver the government’s aspirations and provide people across the country with much-needed housing options."
The growth of private rental sector developments outside London is continuing apace, with planning permission being sought for a proposed development in Liverpool. Moda Living and Apache Capital are planning an £80 million tower at Princes Dock after an agreement with landowner Peel.
If built, the tower will be 34 storeys high and include 304 homes. The tower will feature a 24-hour concierge service, a garden, cinema, gym and fitness centre, plus a roof terrace.
Architects Falconer Hall said the design of the building echoes the "historical relationship of Liverpool with New York and complements the existing local mercantile architecture including the Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building".
This is not the only planned major development in the city, as the Elliot Group has published plans for its Liverpool gateway development. Located on the northern edge of the city centre, it will feature three conjoined 34-storey apartment towers. These will provide 900 new homes.
The planning application is not due to be made until the early autumn, but Liverpool City Council planners are said to be enthused by the designs.
Spokesman for the developer Elliot Lawless said: "We wanted to create a statement of confidence for people entering the city.
"If our proposals are approved then they will go a long way to helping Leeds Street fulfil its potential as a dramatic gateway along the northern edge of the city centre."
Another high-rise project in the offing is Allied London's St John's development in Manchester, which will include three skyscrapers with over 900 rental apartments between them if it gains planning permission later this year. Allied London has announced that Denton Corker Marshall will design the towers, which will sit on part of a site that formerly housed the Granada Studios.
Commercial
Proposals have been published to double the size of MediaCityUK in Salford Quays with 540,000 sq ft of new commercial space. The £1 billion plan proposed by Peel Land and Property and Legal and General Capital will also see 1,800 new homes being built.
Chief executive of The Peel Group Steven Underwood commented: "This application is another major step forward in the evolution of MediaCityUK.
"Our partnership with Legal and General Capital, alongside continued support from the public sector, provides a strong platform to deliver future development phases of the UK’s fastest growing hub for the creative and digital industries."
Outline planning permission to expand the MediaCityUK development was granted by Salford City Council in 2006, with a deadline of October this year to produce detailed plans.
The City of London is set for a new skyscraper, titled 1 Leadenhall Street. Plans have gone on display locally for the 37-storey office block, which would include a free public gallery offering panoramic views across the capital.
If it receives planning permission, building will start around March 2018 or later, as the existing six-storey building on the site will have to be demolished. As it was located on the site of the Roman Forum in the original Londinium 2,000 years ago, archaeologists may be dominating the site before the builders get their turn.
Energy
BAM Construct UK is to install five pioneering 'gravity-based' anchors for offshore wind turbines as an experiment run in conjunction with EDF Energy off the coast of Northumberland. The £40 million project will involve the building of the 30 ft wide, 13,000 tonne structures by Shepherd Engineering at the Neptune dry dock on the Tyne.
Head of civil engineering at BAM Malcolm Corlett said: "This is a very significant milestone, not just for BAM but for the wider offshore wind sector - an opportunity to demonstrate the potential for self-installing concrete gravity bases to provide economic foundations for large wind turbines in deeper water."
The offshore wind sector is also set for a boost after the governments of Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark, Ireland and Belgium met in Luxembourg to agree a memorandum of understanding to develop the industry.
A British exit from the EU will be bad news for energy in the UK, according to the Energy Institute (EI)'s annual Barometer survey. EI president Professor Jim Skea said: "In terms of securing energy supplies, renewable energy development, climate change and sustainability, and air quality, about four times as many respondents anticipate negative effect.
"The single exception to this pattern was oil and gas production, where positive and negative views were broadly balanced."
According to the report, there are risks and dangers to UK energy security in a range of scenarios, but Brexit is seen as posing the greatest threat.
Infrastructure
Oxfordshire County Council has said the establishment of a new railway station at Grove is a priority in the new Oxfordshire transport plan.
It stated: "Our expectation is that a new station could be served by the hourly passenger service to be introduced between the south west of England, Oxford and the East Midlands by 2033, and peak-hour services to and from Didcot, Reading and London Paddington."
The proposal is a revision of the original scheme to reopen the closed station at Wantage Road. This plan has been abandoned due to the proximity of the new A338 to the old station, making it unviable.
Speaking to the Oxfordshire Herald, council leader Ian Hudspeth said the reason for the new station would be to increase the number of rail connections between Oxford and Didcot.
The Midland Metro is to be extended in the city of Wolverhampton, following the granting of an order by the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin. This will involve extending the system from the city centre stop in Bilston Street to Wolverhampton Railway Station, providing Centro with the compulsory access and acquisition powers needed to carry out the work.
Mr McLoughlin expressed the view that there were no good alternatives to the scheme, which is in line with the development plans of various agencies in the Black Country and the wider West Midlands conurbation. It will also provide a comprehensive interchange between rail, tram and bus services in the city centre, helping generate 1,500 jobs through the creation of a commercial hub in the vicinity.
The construction sector has urged the UK to continue investing in infrastructure in the wake of the EU referendum result. Head of external affairs at the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Marie-Claude Hemming said: "The UK must act to secure its economy, but growth will only be delivered if supported by world-class infrastructure."
He argued that the government should press ahead with HS2 and a third Heathrow runway. However, the latter project is already opposed by some in the government and senior Leave campaigner Boris Johnson, who has ruled himself out of the race to be prime minister, but may be in the next cabinet.
