好色先生TV

The job cuts come as the firm plans to reduce its turnover in contracting from 拢500m to 拢300m annually. They are in addition to almost 30 jobs axed in August as a result of Rok鈥檚 decision to end its commercial development venture.

It had been reported previously that the firm was likely to relocate the workers to different parts of the business. However, Snook told 好色先生TV: 鈥淭here are some people who don鈥檛 want to do anything other than contracting, and that鈥檚 their choice.鈥�

The news follows rumours of large-scale redundancies and office closures. Snook said contracting work in the firm鈥檚 Liverpool office had been stopped, with work from other offices, including Manchester, severely reduced. The firm鈥檚 estimating business has also been moved from Manchester, to be centralised in York.

However, Snook denied that any of Rok鈥檚 63 offices would close, with other lines of business expanding rapidly. He said the firm would hire far more people over the next 12 months than it had made redundant as it grows its social housing and maintenance businesses to fill the 拢200m contracting shortfall.

Snook said the firm was hiring 50-80 people a month as part of this venture, which he claimed would provide a more reliable source of work, at higher profit margins, than contracting.

Rok鈥檚 commercial development business was closed after revenues fell 58% to record a 拢2.7m loss in 2008.