Royal BAM Group said it had suffered a ‘substantial loss’ on the project in its latest reported group results for the first half of 2024.

Conversely, BAM Nuttall, the UK civil engineering business, delivered strong profits more than doubled to £36m.

Ruud Joosten, CEO of Royal BAM, said the construction market remained challenging in the UK although retrofit, refurbishment and education and health provision offered attractive opportunities.

He said: “BAM needs to be flexible and adapt to current market conditions and as a result BAM has started a consultation process about reducing staff numbers within the Construction segment of the division UK.”

The firm has not detailed the number of staff redundancies planned but has provided £3.4m for the restructuring.

The Co-op Live arena project has been rumoured to have cost BAM dearly with estimates that the £350m cost ballooned to £450m after slow progress and delays.

This morning BAM revealed that the delayed opening of the arena had cost the firm £25m.

In a statement this morning the firm said: “The performance of Construction UK was impacted by earlier reported project delays and supply chain issues, and included a substantial loss in the second quarter of 2024 for Co-op Live in Manchester.

“The performance of civil engineering UK was solid, especially in rail. Ventures performed well, considering the 2023 comparator benefiting from the divestment of an office development.”

Overall the UK and Ireland business delivered flat revenue of £1.34bn generating a profit down nearly a fifth to £43m.