In a trading statement the firm said the recovery seen in the first half of the year was continuing driving recruitment of more staff, despite the challenging conditions in several of its markets.

“Our rail business is operating with improved utilisation as the signalling work won at the start of last year begins.

“Our water and environment business is busy with High Speed 2 work and AMP5 framework activity and our defence and aerospace businesses continue to grow,” said the firm.

“Elsewhere, in our highways and transportation business, we have secured further design work in the period on the later upgraded sections of the M25 motorway as part of our joint venture.”

Outside of the UK, the picture is more mixed.

In the Middle East, Atkin said negotiation of outstanding contract variations continued to be protracted, impacting both on short term profitability and cash flow performance.

Its North American consultancy was also experiencing difficult trading. The Peter Brown business would shortly close its last two remaining legacy projects and was bidding for new work to build order backlog.

Headcount in the Faithful+Gould business in South East Asia was on the rise, reflecting the growth opportunities across the region.