Carillion: 900 jobs now axed as firm's collapse begins to take its toll

The Official Receiver, which is handling the liquidation of the Wolverhampton construction and services giant, said the safeguarded jobs were connected to both private and public sector contracts and covered services for Oxfordshire county council, as well as a range of facilities management services. Around 276 jobs have been saved at Oxfordshire council.

A spokesperson added: "Regrettably, we are also announcing that 101 roles have been made redundant. These are a mix of back-office functions and engineering support roles that new suppliers no longer require."

These are understood to be workers at Carillion offices and contracts across the country. The company employed nearly 19,000 people in the UK when it crashed last month. They are based at around 200 sites across the UK, from offices such as the Wolverhampton headquarters to Portakabins on building sites.

So far 2,250 jobs have been saved and 930 jobs have been made redundant through the liquidation process.

The Official Receiver's spokesperson added: "We continue to engage with staff, elected employee representatives and unions throughout. Those who have lost their jobs will be able to find support through Jobcentre Plus’ Rapid Response Service and are also entitled to make a claim for statutory redundancy payments.

"The liquidation process continues and we remain focused on engaging with staff and new suppliers about any changes to jobs and contracts.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the Government has put aside £150 million to cover the cost of liquidating Carillion.

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington told MPs at a parliamentary liaison committee that the Treasury had provided an initial £150m to the Official Receiver to cover legal fees and the cost of keeping some services running.

He said it was hoped the sale of parts of the group and its contracts, as part of the liquidation process, would enable the Government to recover some of that money. But Mr Lidington could not rule out more money being spent at a later date.

The Government is continuing to support Carillion work on public sector contracts but the company's work on major construction projects such as the Midland Metropolitan Hospital at Smethwick and the £700m Paradise Birmingham development have ground to a halt.

During the liaison committee hearing Gareth Rhys Williams, the civil servant in charge of commercial procurement at the Cabinet Office, said the Government stood by its decision to award £1.4 billion of work on the HS2 rail line to a consortium of companies including Carillion the month after it issued a profits warning last summer.

He said Carillion had passed the tests the Government ran on contractors, assessing its turnover and ability to carry out the work. These tests were run again following the profit warning in July and both Carillion and the consortium had again passed.

And documents released by the select committee inquiry into the company's collapse, which heard evidence from directors this week, show Carillion bosses were pursuing or planning claims for over £260 million on seven contracts before the firm collapsed.

Carillion hoped to recover £33 million on the Midland Metropolitan Hospital project. It was aiming to complete work by June 2019 after delays caused by problems with building services on the scheme.

The extend of the claims is revealed in the business rescue plan the Carillion board had put to its banks and the Government in a failed attempt to secure emergency funding to keep the stricken business going.

This revealed the amount it had written off its balance sheet had risen to £1.1 billion while its net debt had risen by £850 million during 2017 "due to a significant number of material legacy contracts, delays in settlements and PFI transactions".

The report admitted that Carillion was "materially over-leveraged and is unable to generate sufficient EBITDA (earnings) going forward to fund the completion of legacy contracts and future financing, debt and pension obligations".

There was also a pensions black hole now thought to be valued at around £990m.