Ex-Laing chief has left £4.5m

By Pam McClounie

Last updated 12:50, Friday, 29 August 2008

SIR MAURICE Laing, the Carlisle-born former head of construction giant Laing Group, has left estate valued at £4,569,134.

Sir Maurice, who died in February aged 90, was chairman of John Laing plc.

The firm began in Sebergham in the 1840s and was based in Dalston Road, Carlisle, until 1926.

It was responsible for many of Carlisle’s best-known buildings including The Lanes, Civic Centre, Sands Centre, Pirelli, Woolworth and the Central Plaza Hotel.

Sir Maurice was born in 1918 and served in the RAF during World War Two, despite being exempt from military service because of his work.

After the war he became number two at the family firm under his elder brother Kirby.

He was appointed as a director of the Bank of England in 1963 and was the first president of the Confederation of British Industry in 1965. He was knighted that year after Laing built Britain’s first motorway, the M1. He succeeded his brother as chairman of Laing in 1976 but stepped down six years later to be appointed life president.

Sir Maurice donated the land for the Eden Valley Hospice in Durdar Road, Carlisle, which opened in 1991.