The Enquirer understands the redundancy consultation process launched in September and is currently concluding with around 70 roles affected.

The move comes as Skanska sold its infrastructure services business to M Group for £50m earlier this month and confirmed plans to end its involvement in gas mains replacement work.

A Skanska spokesperson said: “Following Skanska’s decision to sell its infrastructure services business and to end its involvement in gas mains replacement, the company entered into collective consultation and, subsequently, individual consultation, with employees in its head office support functions, as well as with other support staff, about the proposed loss of a number of roles.”

Gregor Craig, Skanska UK President and CEO, said: “As we focus on our core markets and maximise our ability to deliver the quality and value our customers require, at sustainable and consistent profit margins, we need to ensure our whole organisation is structured and sized to enable us to do this competitively in the future.

“The action we are taking is not connected to Covid-19 and is based on the decisions we made regarding the future direction of the business before the pandemic struck.

“We’ve always said we had no intention of making redundancies as a result of Covid-19.”

Skanska emphasised it is not withdrawing from the water sector and recently signed long-term contracts with Welsh Water and Anglian Water.