Employees at one of Scotland’s largest construction companies, City Building, had a busy Christmas after they received an unusually high number of emergency call-outs during the festive season.

Glasgow City Council’s arm’s-length construction company, City Building – which operates repairs and maintenance contracts for clients including housing associations, schools and private sector companies – responded to 7,103 emergency call-outs between 24 December and 5 January.

More than 1,100 jobs were attended to on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The call-outs peaked on 29 December, when City Building tradespeople attended more than 1,500 emergency jobs.


Emergency call-outs ranged from frozen pipes and lift breakdowns through to no cold water supply.

The news follows City Building’s announcement that it had responded to over 700 burst pipe call-outs during a two-day period in early December – almost seven times the amount the company would expect to receive during an average two-day period.

City Building managing director Willie Docherty said: “While Christmas is traditionally a time to be at home with family and friends, the extreme winter weather so far has made it hard for many people in Glasgow and the west of Scotland to enjoy the festivities.

“However, our tradespeople and partner companies braved the elements and worked round the clock to ensure that disruption to people’s Christmases, particularly vulnerable customers, was kept to a minimum.”

City Building typically attends 250,000 non-emergency jobs per year, most of which are on a planned or reactive maintenance basis.

(GK/KMcA)