Balfour Beatty celebrates topping CJ50 for table 2008

Balfour Beatty Construction Scottish and Southern managing director Bob Clarke (right) has been presented with a bottle of champagne by Causeway's James Atkinson in recognition of its success in 2008.

The firm won £3.3bn worth of work in 2008, over £800m more than its nearest rival Laing O'Rourke.

It recorded strong overall growth in 2008, driven by its performance in the public and infrastructure sectors. In fact, its iron grip on the top spot was further strengthened by the Government's plan to bring forward public spending in order to kickstart the economy.

With Laing O'Rourke hot on its heels in November Balfour Beatty pulled away having won the £365m dualling project on the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool in December.

Despite the well-publicised economic worries, last year wasn't just a good year for Balfour Beatty, it proved to be positive for all contractors making up the CJ50. Total new orders did not hit the heights of 2007 - when £32.7bn worth of work was let - but it was still the second best year in CJ50 history, just £2bn short at £30.7bn.

In a year when Building Schools for the Future schemes finally started to come through, other public non-housing work accounted for 30% of the 2008 total, up from 24% in 2007. Infrastructure was also up, accounting for a quarter of work let in 2008, compared to 21% in both 2006 and 2007.

Social housing remained steady at 15% in 2008, a slight drop from 17% in 2007 but evidence that the Decent Homes programme continues to provide a drip-feed of work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, private commercial orders were down 7% on the previous year, dropping back to the same share as 2006 at 28% and private industrial orders fell 1% to 2%.

Monthly CJ50 tables.

The CJ50 contracts league 12 month table.