Slow growth in highways brings job cuts at Kier

Contractor Kier has announced 180 job losses due to slow growth in highways coinciding with consolidation of the combined Kier-Mouchel business. A first swathe of 80 job cuts at Kier's London Highways Alliance contract for Transport for London was reported last week. This was blamed on a need to remove duplication of roles between Kier depots and and those of Enterprise Mouchel's London Highways Alliance contract in southern and south-east London. Enterprise Mouchel was part of the package that Kier bought when it acquired Mouchel last year.

This week Kier has announced a further round of 100 job cuts at its Area 9 highways contract for Highways England in the West Midlands. This is understood to have come as a result of workload not meeting expectations. Highways England has a £15.2 billion five year programme of work to deliver as set out in the government's Roads Investment Strategy. This has so far been slow to ramp up in comparison to earlier expectations. 

In a statement, Kier said: "The five year investment programme set out by Highways England is flexible and as a key service provider to them we must be responsive and shape our maintenance workforce to reflect their delivery requirements.