Balfour Beatty to cut 200 jobs as it shuts sites

Balfour Beatty is to close three of its regional construction businesses with the loss of up to 200 jobs. The largest closure is at Dartford, Kent, where 90 jobs will go. The other sites are at Rochdale, in Lancashire and Doncaster in Yorkshire.

Balfour, which warned in April that its profits would be lower than forecast because of weak UK conditions, said the three sites account for 8 per cent of its £1.5bn UK construction revenues and were unsustainable.

The group also named the former Network Rail executive and Government adviser Nick Pollard as the head of its UK construction business yesterday as Andrew McNaughton, Balfour's chief executive, resumes his wider role.