Announcing an overall group loss of £2.9m, the firm said legacy contracts and further cost and time overruns on two major problem contracts plunged the troubled division into a £6.2m loss – an improvement on a £9.5m loss at the arm in 2013.

Robert Moyle, Chairman, said the combined division has now been divided back into two separate entities for civil engineering and building, with the civil engineering division operating under the management of NMCNomenca.

He added that the building division of the Nottinghamshire-based firm is being managed by a newly-recruited team.

A strong performance at the NMCNomenca and Nomenca water businesses helped to lift group turnover 9% to £193m, despite building and civils sales dropping off 40% to £15.8 over the year.

Moyle said: “The resolution of the few remaining legacy contracts still remains challenging, but progress is being made.”

He added that at year-end the group has a cash balance of £5.3m and group credit facilities continued to be adequate to help fund its £155m order book for the year.