John Morgan, chief executive, said the performance in the first three months had put the group on track to exceed expectations for 2017.

He forecast the overall group result would be driven by further margin and profit growth in fit-out and margin improvement at the construction and infrastructure division.

The surge in fit-out drove much of the improvement with committed orders up 17% from the year-end position to a record £544m.

This lifted Morgan Sindall’s committed order book so far this year by 5% to £3.83bn from the year-end position, while the regeneration and development pipeline was up 2% to £3.28bn.

Average daily net cash over the period rose to £154m, higher than previously expected due primarily to better working capital management in construction and fit-out operations.

Morgan said: “We have had a strong start to the year, and with our strategy geared towards those areas of the economy we expect to grow strongly, together with the size and quality of our order book and pipeline, we are confident that the momentum we have seen so far is set to continue.”