Civil engineer and groundwork specialist Britin Construction has gone into receivership, with the loss of 150 jobs.

Britin, which was working on a number of prestigious projects including St Paul鈥檚 Cathedral and Dulwich College, called in an administrator after suffering cash flow problems. The firm had about 30 active contracts throughout the South-east.

Administrator Pam Erny, of BN Jackson Norton, said Britin鈥檚 problems had been exacerbated when HM Revenue & Customs withdrew its CIS registration.

She said: 鈥淭he Revenue鈥檚 decision came on top of problems with subcontractors鈥� cheques bouncing and the firm could not continue.鈥�

Erny added that the receiver was not looking to sell the firm. She said: 鈥淚nitially we wanted to save the company and had the backing of key clients, but the workers wanted short-term guarantees over arrears which we could not give them. They refused to work so we could not continue with the contracts.鈥�

Britin had a turnover of 拢8.4m in its last available results, for the year to 31 March 2005. It suffered a loss of 拢42,502 that year, compared with a 拢89,103 profit in 2004.

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