Connaught went into administration yesterday after running into trouble for bidding too low to win work.

Administrator KPMG is looking to sell individual maintenance contracts quickly in a bid to save the jobs of as many of Connaught’s 10,000 staff as possible.

But rivals like Mears, Morgan Sindall, Rok, Morrison, Kier and Willmott Dixon will look for better rates from clients to take on the work.

One social housing specialist told the Enquirer: “Everyone’s interested in taking on these contracts but we’ll have to have a close look at the terms.

“If Connaught ran into trouble for bidding too low then we don’t want to make the same mistake and will want more money to step in and takeover.”

KPMG is now running Connaught as a going concern as it looks to sell contracts to rival firms or do deals with councils who want to take the work back in-house

The administrators are hoping to finalise deals rapidly so staff can be transferred over to new contractors and organisations.

KPMG said: “However, to the extent that alternative providers do not take on employees then redundancies will need to be made.

“Decisions regarding redundancies will be announced as soon as possible.”

Joint administrator Richard Heis added: “We will work closely with customers, employees, subcontractors and alternative providers to ensure services are maintained as far as possible and contracts and employees are transferred to alternative providers.”