This UK maintenance and construction company will cut 750 jobs by the end of the year after a slump in building spread from private to public projects.

Its chief executive says both sales and operating profit will be about 25 per cent lower next year than analysts have estimated.

Any slowdown in public work threatens an already beleaguered construction industry as state contracts have underpinned order books. Projects totalling more than £150m have been cancelled or deferred, as clients have been unwilling or unable to access cash during the current banking crisis.

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