Laing O’Rourke’s profit increased in its last financial year, despite bringing forward a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pre-tax profit for the group increased to £45.5m for the year ending 31 March 2020, up from the £32.8m recorded in the previous year.
The group’s financial year ended on 31 March, the same month the pandemic hit the UK, with the country going into lockdown on 20 March. Chief financial officer Rowan Baker told
Construction News that accounting rules meant the company had already recognised £16.1m of extra COVID-19 costs on projects that occurred after its year end.
She said: “Although it [COVID-19] only impacted the last month of the [financial] year, what we are actually required to do by the accounting standards, and the auditors have been very thorough on this point, is look at the overall COVID impact on our projects. So, for example, if your profitability on a project has deteriorated since the [financial] year end, you have to reflect that in y
Ray O’Rourke penned a piece for
Construction News, urging the sector to pick up a “new, proven way” of constructing the buildings and infrastructure that will aid our road to recovery.
He wrote: “Modern methods of construction shift the work away from construction sites and into safe, sustainable, high-tech manufacturing facilities – where new, inclusive, high-skilled jobs can be created, in regional centres.”
The impact of the coronavirus on British business and society was swift and profound, bringing about an entirely new dimension to onsite health and safety. With sites and businesses forced to close, ordinarily it would have led to mass redundancies. However, the government’s furlough scheme meant companies could “temporarily suspend” certain job roles rather than laying off swathes of staff.