Britain’s biggest steelwork contractor Severfield is planning to cut staff numbers by around 6% in the face of growing cost pressure on tender prices.

Based on last year’s published figures this will amount to over 100 job cuts.

In a year-end trading statement this morning, the specialist contractor said: “We continue to take appropriate cost reduction actions to mitigate the effects of the trading pressures the group is currently facing.

“We have recently completed a headcount review, which will result in a reduction in group headcount of around 6% through a combination of redundancies and the non-recruitment of approved vacancies.”

Severfield said the belt-tightening programme would also include tighter control of working capital, speeding up some tax refunds from HMRC, scaling back planned capital spending after heavy investment in recent years, and continuing efforts to cut costs elsewhere.

“While we continue to see a good pipeline of project opportunities, the market backdrop in the UK and Europe remains challenging, with pricing remaining at tighter levels for longer than expected in a competitive market and some projects not being awarded or progressing within normal timescales, all of which is consistent with the current lower level of business confidence in the UK economy as a whole,” it said.

Severfield said its bridge remedial works programme was progressing to plan, with the final bill still expected to land at around £20m after insurance.

The firm has already racked up around £18m in testing and remedial costs during FY25, with the remainder forecast to be spent across FY26 and FY27.

Looking further ahead, Severfield said it had landed some major projects for FY27 and was seeing strong opportunities emerging in industrial manufacturing, London offices and data centres.