The changes were introduced last month and have caused chaos across the M&E sector where most firms are still struggling to cope with new employment models.

But Clarke has a mainly directly employed workforce and expects to see rivals’ labour costs rise as the taxman pays closer scrutiny to formerly self-employed workers.

The firm said: “Our commitment to direct employment should give us tendering advantages given recent HMRC changes towards the use of self employed operatives.”

The statement was part of a trading update to the City this morning where Clarke highlighted “clear signs of improvements in our markets.”

But margins are still tight and the firm warned “we still believe that it will be 2015 before we see meaningful improvement to margins in our most competitive markets.”

Revenues to April 30 2014 were £70m compared to £65m during the same period last year and Clarke’s forward order book is at an all-time high, standing at £265m against £230m last time.

The firm also announced that Tony Giddins, one of the partners at developer Argent, who is responsible for the King’s Cross development, will be joining the T Clarke board as a non-executive director.