A snap poll of Carillion engineering sub-contractors shows that many companies are facing huge financial losses from the collapse of the construction giant.

The data, obtained by the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) and the electrotechnical and engineering services trade body ECA, shows that 80 surveyed engineering services firms are owed around £75 million.

The overall losses are likely to be far higher, given there are thousands of businesses operating in the industry.

Recently, BESA and ECA met with liquidator PwC and the government. PwC said any private sector work undertaken by Carillion suppliers before 15 January 2018 would be unpaid. Instead, it would be treated as ‘unsecured debt’, and placed at the back of the queue behind other creditors.

“We knew the fallout from this seismic episode would be extremely serious, but these figures give us a clearer picture of just how hard our sector is going to hit in terms of the thousands of pounds of unsecured debt that will be lost by ordinary hard working small businesses, jeopardising their future and the future of their staff,” said BESA President Tim Hopkinson.