Staff at London and Northern arms affected

Bam has begun a redundancy consultation with 40 staff working at its Northern and London arms of its construction business.

The firm, which employs 2,200 people across its UK construction division, said the consultation started yesterday with the process expected to last up to 30 days in accordance with employment law.

A Bam spokesperson said: 鈥淟ike all businesses, we need to be flexible and adapt to current market conditions.

coop live

Source: Shutterstock

The Co-op Live venue opened last month after a series of delays

鈥淲ithin the construction sector, the market has been particularly challenging over the past couple of years. As a result of this we have started a consultation process about reducing staff numbers within the Construction segment of Bam UK and Ireland division.

鈥淭his is not a decision we have taken lightly but these proposed changes will support us in further embedding our regional and divisional structures which have been implemented over recent years.鈥

>> See also: Uh-oh. Co-op Live鈥檚 woes leave industry with familiar sinking feeling

Last month, Tim Leiweke, chief executive of the Oak View Group (OVG), the American operator behind Bam鈥檚 delayed Co-op Live venue, who co-own it with City Football Group, which also owns Manchester City, said the contractor had 鈥渓ost a lot of money on the job鈥.

He said the original cost was 拢365m but admitted: 鈥淥VG and City Football Group, including our contractor and what they鈥檝e had to put in in losses, we will spend close to 拢450m privately. The contractor [Bam] lost a lot of money on this job. This job cost them more than anyone ever expected.鈥

Bam, which signed up for the job three years ago, built the arena under a fixed-price deal. A few days before the job was due to open, 好色先生TV revealed 800 were still working on the scheme, with the project running 24 hours a day in order to get it finished.