The Enquirer understands that jobs are under threat in England following slower than expected workloads coming through from Network Rail under the current five-year Control Period 7 (CP7) investment programme which started in April.

One source said: “We won a series of places on CP7 and geared the business-up up for higher volumes of work but that just isn’t coming through at the moment.

“This has led to a round of redundancies and a lot of people here are very nervous going into Christmas.

“No-one is sure exactly what is going on and how many people will be affected.”

Latest results for the year to March 31 2023 for the Carlisle based contractor show a turnover of £206m generating a pre-tax profit of £3m while employing 657 staff.

Story Contracting declined to comment.