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Getting clients to pay up and the increased cost of bidding projects hit profits at TP Bennett last year.

The firm behind fit-out work at Make鈥檚 UBS building (pictured) at 5 Broadgate in the City of London said pre-tax profits were also pared back by a hike in IT costs.

In a statement accompanying its latest results the firm said it had faced 鈥渋ncreased difficulty in securing appropriate additional fees when running out projects nearing completion鈥�.

It said it was looking to pump more money into its Manchester office, which it opened in 2015, as well as increase its work in the justice and custodial sectors.

Revenue at the firm for the year to March 2017 grew 6% to just over 拢29m but pre-tax profits slumped 8% to 拢7.9m.

The firm said it had a 鈥済ood pipeline of future work across a broad client and sector base鈥�. Among the projects it is working on is a build-to-rent housing scheme at Battersea Reach in south London.

Staff numbers went up 11% to 260 which helped send the firm鈥檚 wages bill up by more 拢1.5 million to 拢11.3 million.

As an LLP, the firm has 49 members with profits shared between each one. The profit paid to the member with the largest share was 拢683,000 鈥� down from last year鈥檚 拢956,000.