The company has its origins in 1848, when James Laing and his wife Ann Graham embarked on a home construction venture in Cumberland before relocating to Carlisle.

By 1920, John William Laing had taken charge and continued to expand the business; it became a limited company in 1920 and established its headquarters at Mill Hill, London two years later.

In January 1953, John Laing & Sons was listed on the London Stock Exchange, at which point the business had roughly 10,000 employees.

In 1985, Martin Laing became the chairman and pursued further diversification; shortly thereafter, its home construction grew internationally, particularly in the Middle East, Continental Europe, and the United States.

While the late 1990s was a time of rapid expansion for the business expanded rapidly, profitability suffered, leading to job losses and the disposal of its construction division to O'Rourke for £1 in 2001 while the property developments divisions were sold to Kier Group and its house building arm was also divested to George Wimpey during the following year.

John Laing was part of the Agility Trains consortium that was awarded the Intercity Express Programme contract in 2012.

The business can trace its roots back to 1848 when James Laing (born in 1816), along with his wife Ann Graham, and some employees whom they had hired, built a house on a plot of land that they had bought for £30 in Cumberland.

[3] During 1920, the firm became a limited company, and two years later moved its headquarters to a 13 acres (5.3 ha) site at Mill Hill in north-west London.

[10] During June 1995, amid the privatisation of British Rail, John Laing backed a management buyout that was the Chiltern Railways franchise.

However, as the company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1998, it faced falling profits following significant losses on certain construction contracts (including the Cardiff Millennium Stadium, the National Physical Laboratory, a disastrous PFI scheme in Teddington, west London, and No 1 Poultry in the City of London),[4] and sustained problems within its construction division related to competition and overcapacity.

[28] The bid was successful, leading to a £4.5bn contract for new trains for both Greater Western and InterCity East Coast franchises being finalised in mid 2012.

[33] In March 2014, Olivier Brousse was appointed as Chief Executive; he avidly pursued further PPPs for infrastructure delivery and management services.

John Laing confirmed that it would unanimously recommend that its shareholders back the deal and that it considered the terms of the acquisition to be fair and reasonable.