Balfour Beatty has blamed “market conditions” for the decision to merge its southern England construction services business with its North and Midlands unit.

The contractor has decided its southern unit is no longer viable as a standalone business following the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

The decision has led to the departure of Beth West, its MD for construction services in the South. In December 2019,  Construction News revealed that West, a former commercial director for HS2, had been poached by the contractor from Landsec. Major projects the contractor hoped to work on in the South of England, including the Heathrow Airport expansion, have been called off since her appointment, which took effect in February 2020.

A merged construction services business covering all of England and Wales is to be overseen by North and Midlands unit MD Thomas Edgcumbe.

A Balfour Beatty spokeswoman said: “Due to market conditions in the South of England, we are consolidating our construction services regional South business unit into the North and Midlands business unit to form a single business unit.

“We remain committed to working with our customers to continue to successfully deliver our active schemes in the South of England and will continue to selectively bid for projects where our expertise delivers value for our clients coupled with an appropriate risk-return ratio to ensure successful outcomes for all.”

All of the business unit’s existing active projects will continue and there is no programme of redundancies taking place as a result of the move, she added.