Industry experts believe a large swathe of back-office staff could lose their jobs while the future of site staff will depend on who picks-up contracts from the administrators.

One rival firm told the Enquirer: “On the maintenance side a lot of the site staff will be saved because people will come in to take over the contracts in a similar fashion to the way Connaught panned out.

“Those long term contracts should prove attractive to someone and will probably be taken on as going concerns.

“But I can see a lot of job losses within the offices because those functions will just replicate what potential buyers do already.”

Mike Jervis, joint administrator and partner at PwC said: “Employees will naturally be concerned about their position, but they will continue to be paid if they attend work and perform their duties as normal. We will provide further updates throughout the coming weeks.”