Laing鈥檚 rivals and partners were stunned by the news that the contractor is pulling out of competitive tendering 鈥� a move that will see staff numbers reduce by 850 to 1950 and turnover shrink from 拢1.2bn to 拢800m over the next two years.

Stanhope director Peter Rogers鈥� reaction was typical of senior industry figures. 鈥淲ow. It鈥檚 a great pity,鈥� he said. He said that Stanhope had not worked with Laing Management recently because 鈥渋t got dragged into the construction division鈥�. He added that Stanhope would now take a fresh look at Laing Management.

John Lewis building and services deputy director Nigel Keen, who has worked closely with Laing recently, said he had no idea the move was afoot. He added: 鈥淲e need to understand how Laing will manage jobs from a centralised office.鈥�

Davis Langdon & Everest senior partner Paul Morrell said that the move was understandable. 鈥淟aing probably makes 80% of its profit from 20% of its work, so it is right to move away from lower profit jobs.鈥�

Morrell had one word of warning: 鈥淐ompetitive tendering does keep you sharp, looking for innovations. There is a danger it could lose this.鈥�

Gleeds senior partner Richard Steer said that the writing was on the wall. 鈥淟aing has been returning untouched tender documents to us for a few weeks now.鈥� He added: 鈥淚 suppose this makes it vulnerable to a takeover by one of the big European contractors now.鈥�

Gregory Craig, chairman of architect epr, which works regularly with Laing on Whitbread hotels, said: 鈥淚 feel dismay. The industry is worse off without Laing bidding for contracts. I鈥檝e always regarded Laing as the best contractor under JCT80 and pure design-and-build contracts.鈥�