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Balfour Beatty’s dominance of British contracting continued in September as it took the top slot in the contractors league, and stretched its total for the year to £3.2bn – £1bn more than second-placed Kier.

It clinched £295m worth of contracts during September, £244m of which came from the public sector in general and the £136m Tameside hospital scheme in particular.

Snapping at its heels was HBG, which picked up £270m worth of contracts in September after hoovering up £203m of commercial work, complemented by £67m of public sector contracts.

Morgan Sindall also enjoyed a good month as it moved up into third place with £222m worth of work, of which £179m were public sector contracts.

September proved a good month for the up and coming mid-sized contractors with Leadbitter and Durkan catapulting themselves into the top 10. Leadbitter jumped from 11th to fifth on the back of a strong showing from its housing division, which earned £110m of the company’s £138m workload. Meanwhile Durkan came from nowhere to sixth after earning £136m over the month, of which all but £250,000 was accounted for by its large housing arm.

September was not so kind to Skanska, which plunged from the best earner in August to 26th place. The company earned £15.9m from its commercial operations.

Balfour Beatty also eased its way to the top of the contractors tables when civils work was taken into account, clinching £317m worth of work during September.

Skanska suffered slightly less of a plunge when its civils work was taken into consideration as it tumbled from first to 17th with £34.8m worth of work helped by a £19.7m contribution from its civils division.

Over the year Balfour remained on top with £3.2bn of work on the back of a massive 741 contracts. Kier remained in second place with £2.3bn earned from 477 contracts. The most interesting development was that HBG jumped into the number three slot, up from fifth last month, after a strong third quarter pushed its earnings for the year to £2bn.