John Dodds, non-executive chairman, will now act as executive chairman on an interim basis and will work with finance chief Alan Dunsmore, who has agreed to assume the role of chief executive for the time being.

Dodds said: “I will work closely with Alan and the wider team during this time and in the meanwhile, on behalf of the board and everyone at Severfield, I would like to wish Ian a full and speedy recovery.”

In a second half trading statement this morning, Severfield said its performance for the year ending 31 March 2017 would be ahead of expectations.

It added that the UK order book remained solid at £267m and the pipeline of potential projects remained steady although, as previously highlighted, the mix of commercial projects would return to normal levels over the coming months.

“Both order book and pipeline performance remain consistent with our objective of doubling profits by 2020,” said Severfield.