The move has left contractors counting the cost after Travis Perkins decided to cancel the contest on the eve of bids going in.

One contractor told the Enquirer: “We were told just after the firm announced disappointing trading because of a slowdown in housing and warned annual profits would be at the bottom end of forecasts.

“It has obviously cost everybody concerned a lot of money to put detailed bids together.”

Travis Perkins refused to comment on the sudden decision to cancel the competition and would not say what plans it has for the site where construction was due to start early next year.

Britain’s biggest building supplies giant planned to demolish parts of the company’s head office at Lodge Farm Industrial Estate off Harlestone Road to make way for the £30m new headquarters.

Its new complex was to have included an office building and training centre, with an innovation centre, with 241 car parking spaces.

Previously Travis Perkins said the campus could employ an additional 1,000 people, taking its workforce at Lodge Farm to more than 2,000.