Fomer Carillion boss to head up Balfour Beatty/VINCI

Mark Davies, the former managing director of Carillion’s UK infrastructure business, has been named managing director of a Balfour Beatty/VINCI joint venture undertaking £2.5bn worth of contracts on High Speed 2 (HS2).

The joint venture was awarded contracts from Itchington Wood Green Tunnel to Delta Junction/ Birmingham Spur and Delta Junction to the West Coast Main Line in July 2017. It is bidding for further work including railway systems packages and Old Oak Common station.

On his appointment, Davies said: “I am thrilled to be leading the Balfour Beatty/VINCI joint venture team for HS2 to support the delivery of such an iconic major high-speed rail project across the UK.”

However, the appointment has prompted furious reaction from the RMT union, with General Secretary Mick Cash accusing Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling of hypocrisy: “One minute Chris Grayling is lining up an attack on front-line rail workers through his pay cap and the next he is sitting back while the managerial merry-go-round at the top of the industry is rewarding those who have wrecked lives and proved themselves wholly incompetent with fat salaries on prestige projects.

“The hypocrisy of Chris Grayling on top bosses’ pay is breathtaking, but as the ultimate specialist in failure himself, who has clung onto his ministerial pay, perks and car despite reducing the railways to chaos, he would know all about rewarding rank incompetence on an industrial scale.”