Council bosses have appointed Costain as the SECE Major Framework Contractor for the construction of the new Civic Offices Headquarters after the officer's decision was nodded through at the last cabinet meeting.

Civic Services told us: "Reading Borough Council has conducted a vigourous competition to provide best value for council tax payers and Costain beat off the other contenders, Bob The Builder and Bogdan Budowniczy (Krakow) to land the contract. Although we accept that it is traditional to design a building first and then ask how much it will cost to build, we couldn't let tradition get in the way of such an exciting project. And whilst we don't know quite what we want, we do know that whatever it is will cost £50m... we think."