Turnover last year jumped a third to £68m helping to lift pre-tax profits from £820,000 in 2016 to £1.1m.

Operating margin remained stable at 1.7%.

Managing director Paul Strutt said Bardsley was looking forward to another healthy year in 2018.

The firm has a pipeline of secured contracts worth more than £60m with a further £12m due to be confirmed by June.

Bardsley is also hoping to build on its extended regional spread in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

The buider responded to public sector spending uncertainty by chasing student accommodation, private rental housing and the leisure schemes.

Strutt said: “The business is now regularly competing for projects in the midrise market and for contracts of £20m or more and this is evidenced with Bardsley currently having a number of major projects in the heart of the city centre in Manchester and Liverpool.”

Roly Bardsley, chairman of Bardsley Construction, said the firm had benefited from reducing its reliance on the provision of affordable housing, partly because that market “remains slow to react to the constant pleading towards the public sector enablers to build more homes”.

He said: “The delay in public sector work in 2016 continued into 2017 with the only real change being the healthier enquiry levels for elderly care” adding that Bardsley would “continue to specialise in education, elderly care and all aspects of residential development.”

Bardsley, which employs 184 staff, is on 13 major delivery frameworks with a total value of billions of pounds with the firm’s diversification strategy meaning it is not reliant on a particular client or sector.

Bardsley revealed that its average payment days to suppliers improved from 46 day to 43 days over the year. Cash at the end of the year was strong at nearly £9m.