Laing O’Rourke to cut 200 UK jobs

Laing O’Rourke is consulting with its UK employees about making around 200 redundancies, the firm announced today.

The firm, which made a £58m pre-tax loss in its last set of results to March 2015, said that today’s move was part of a proposal to establish “a more competitive business structure across its UK operation, ensuring its project delivery teams are supported by a leaner and more operationally-focused functional overhead.”

The job losses will be centred on the company’s support functions and a streamlining of its regional office networks. Laing O’Rourke said that their proposals will allow the organisation to increase its focus on winning and delivering the £9.2 billion of major projects and strategic frameworks currently on its order book.

Last month, the company announced that it would be selling its Australian business in order to concentrate on investing more in its UK operation in areas that promote the firm’s competitiveness and the attractiveness of its offering to 

Commenting on the redundancy announcement, a company spokesperson said: “There will be no impact on client service levels as we continue to deliver world-class projects on their behalf.