Pre-tax profits jumped 27% to £41m on the back of a similar revenue growth to a record £791m.

Paul Scott, CEO of Renew, said: “2021 was another record year for the group and I am pleased with the progress that has been made across all divisions.

“The essential nature of our work combined with the resilience of our low-risk, high-quality operating model has been a key driver for growth, as we continued to operate through the numerous lockdown and tiering scenarios experienced during the year.”

Last spring Renew bought civils contractor J Browne for £29.5m, taking a strategic jump into the southern water infrastructure market.

It also strengthened its rail presence with the acquisition of REL, a specialist provider of rail overhead line electrification, in order to support the Government’s rail decarbonisation programme.

Scott said Renew continued to strengthen its long-term order book, underpinning its confidence in further growth next year.

At the end of September, the order book was up to £749m (2020: £692m).

Renew chairman David Forbes announced plans to step down after 10 years in the post. He also announced former Laing O’Rourke director Louise Hardy was joining the board as a non-executive director with immediate effect.

A chartered civil engineer, Hardy is currently non-executive director of Crest Nicholson, Genuit Group and Severfield.  

Hardy was previously the European project excellence director at AECOM, responsible for monitoring project performance of 10,000 projects across 15 countries.

At Laing O’Rourke she was infrastructure director, responsible for managing a £2bn portfolio of projects at the London 2012 Olympic Park.