Carillion job losses top 2,400 after collapse of Wolverhampton construction giant

The Official Receiver reported that a further 14 employees have transferred to new suppliers over the past week, taking the total of those finding other work to 12,338 – 68 per cent of the workforce working for the Wolverhampton engineering and services group when it went into compulsory liquidation January.

A further 28 staff will be leaving the business later this week, taking the total number of redundancies to 2,403.

Almost 1,250 employees have left the business during the liquidation through finding new work, retirement or for other reasons.

The update said 2,100 employees are currently retained to enable Carillion to deliver the remaining services it is providing in the public and private sectors. That includes 140 at the company's headquarters building in Wolverhampton city centre who are handling human resources and contract work for accountants PwC, the special managers of Carillion's liquidation.

Most of them face eventual redundancy once the liquidation process comes to an end. So far 320 head office staff have lost their jobs or left since the company's collapse nearly six months ago.

Meanwhile outsourcing group Serco has revealed it has taken a hit to sales in the first half of its financial year, and warned that profitability will be knocked when it adopts healthcare contracts from Carillion.

Serco has been working with Carillion's liquidators to take on some of the contracts held by the firm, which collapsed in January.

The outsourcer expects to take on the service contracts for six NHS hospital sites, bringing in roughly £70 million in extra revenue for the firm.

The new contracts are forecast to add around £4 million to Serco's underlying trading profit.

Serco said there will, however, be an impact on net profitability for 2018 because the company will bear the cost of taking on the contracts, although there will only be a trading contribution for part of the year.

The contract for managing the Great Western Hospital in Swindon has already been transferred to Serco, with the rest set to pass over in the coming weeks.

The company took a £60 million hit to revenues due to currency movements, which also hit trading profit by up to £4 million.

Serco chief executive Rupert Soames said: "Notwithstanding market conditions that are less than ideal, particularly in the UK, we are responding appropriately and continuing to make progress in line with our strategy."