Firm blames ‘uncertainty in construction market’ for job losses

Foster & Partners has confirmed that it is cutting jobs at the practice because of “uncertainty in the construction market”.

According to its last set of accounts, the firm had close to 1,500 employees worldwide – including offices at Abu Dhabi, New York and Shanghai – with 1,265 working out of its London base in Battersea.

It is understood the staff most at risk are based in London with the number facing the axe believed to be less than 100.

In a statement, the firm, which is headed by Norman Foster (pictured), said: “Foster & Partners has grown significantly over the last two years with a record number of projects many of which are now close to completion.

“This, coupled with some uncertainty in the construction market, has led us to make some adjustments to our practice, which regrettably includes some redundancies enabling us to balance numbers with our current and foreseeable workload.”

In the year to April 2016, revenue rose a quarter to £257m but underlying profit slipped from £51.7m to £41m.

More than £150m of its revenue comes from the Middle East and North America with its work from mainland Europe accounting for just 7% of business.

Workloads in the UK slipped 13% to £24m.

 

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