Hundreds of jobs have been lost as the rate of firms going into insolvency has risen for the first time since 2009.
118 jobs were axed as Derby steelwork contractor Robinson & Sons went into administration, Construction Enquirer reported.
The £28m-turnover structural steel specialist went bust just ten months after it drafted in venture capitalists R Capital to try to save the firm. Members of the Robinson family, who founded the company in the 1950s, described it a “tragedy”.
The news came just a week after historic builder Holloway White Allom, which rebuilt the Bank of England and the fountains at Trafalgar Square, fell into administration with the loss of 175 jobs.
Meanwhile the UK’s largest architect, BDP, announced it is to make up to 100 staff redundant after public sector spending cuts were compounded by a serious delay to one of its biggest public sector contracts.
The job losses are accompanied by figures from leading accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy which show a marked increase in insolvencies over the first half of 2011, Building reported.
In the first six months of 2011 insolvencies tallied 1,873 compared with only 1,642 in the last two quarters of 2010.
But the number of insolvencies per quarter is still below the volume registered through the wake of recession in 2009 when over 1,000 firms were going bust every three months.
Anthony Cork, partner and head of restructuring and recovery at Wilkins Kennedy, said: “Although the construction industry has bounced off the floor, the huge number of insolvencies we’re witnessing confirms that the sector is still fragile.”
Brian Berry, director for external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders, said the figures came as little surprise to him: “For 15 consecutive quarters there have been falling workloads for small and medium builders and we know from our own research that 57% of our members are reporting problems with banks lending. It’s a tough market for small and medium enterprises.”
Wilkins Kennedy reported that a total of 11,862 construction businesses have gone bust since the beginning of 2009.
