Phil McGuire stepped down after it emerged that £20m of the £30m recent profit warning came from problem M&E jobs.

Nicholas Pollard, Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK Chief Executive Officer, will now also act as interim managing director of the engineering services business.

The move follow a series of major changes at the division in recent weeks. This has seen three of the five regional engineering services directors replaced with new faces at the South, North East and North  West operations.

Earlier this month one of Network Rail’s main project directors Uma Shanker was appointed by Balfour for a completely new role as chief operating officer for Engineering Services.

Pollard told the Enquirer: “There are around a dozen projects where a deep-dive review revealed commercial and operational assessments were in our view optimistic.”

He said that when Balfour Beatty conducted a full audit of ongoing work at the end of 2012 the problem jobs had been just starting up.

Pollard said: “The depth of the difficulties were not apparent at that time. But because we now have good checks and balances in place we have been able to flag up concerns and work through the issues quickly.”

He said the Engineering Services division would continue as a key part of the Balfour Beatty offering going forward.

Pollard added: “This is a business with an impeccable brand, with strong technical capabilities and it will continue to be part of the key integrated offer from Balfour Beatty.

“The M&E market is not yet recovering as fast as we would like and forecast.

“As a tier two specialist contractor it relies heavily on the industry pipeline picking up.”