The firm saw revenue recover by almost a third to £793m in 2021, helping it to return a modest £2.6m pre-tax profit.

Before extra administration and finance costs, Multiplex said this equated to a construction margin of 3.2%.

Callum Tuckett, Multiplex’s UK managing director, said: “We continued to manage our liquidity requirements throughout the pandemic through internal resilience measures ending the year with £15m of cash (2020: £26m).”

Multiplex ended the year with an improved workbook up 8% at £2.7bn. This included four residential projects worth £1.9bn and five commercial projects worth £675m.

The firm also had several higher educational projects worth £150m.

Tuckett added: “We remained disciplined as we look at new work, ensuring the financial viability of schemes, as well as clients and subcontractors, while bidding for work at appropriate terms.”

In the later part of last year, Multiplex challenged itself to employ woman-led teams on 10% of its projects by 2025 and shift to a 5-day working week on sites.

A new 10-year social equity transformation business strategy aims to lead by example, tackling lack of female leadership, structural racism, excessive hours, and supply chain abuse.

Multiplex also plans to roll out flexible working to all sites this year, and implement a maximum 14-hour day door-to-door policy.

Within the supply chain, Multiplex is committing to 35-day payment and aims to channel a third of spend to SMEs.