United Utilities appointed the Laing O’Rourke Imtech joint venture on the £170m Davyhulme Waste Water Treatment Works modernisation programme in Manchester in March 2015.

Dutch parent company Royal Imtech went into administration that August.

Imtech UK and Ireland continued to trade normally but the water, energy and waste division was not part of the rescue deal.

O’Rourke took on some of the staff from the stricken division.

O’Rourke confirmed the full hit from the failure in its annual report for the year to March 31 2016 which was published this week.

It stated: “UK margins were also negatively impacted by a £24.8 million margin deterioration due to the failure of one of the Group’s joint venture partners and the subsequent consequences of delivering a new water treatment plant in UK.”

The UK contracting division made a total pre-tax loss of £141.3m during the year.

O’Rourke declined to comment on the £24.8m figure or officially confirm which project it related to.