Mears picks up Connaught deals

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The number of redundancies at the collapsed social housing firm Connaught rose to 1,100 yesterday – but a new deal with a rival company could offer hope to nearly half of the out-of-work employees.

Rival Mears will take on eight contracts from Connaught, which appointed KPMG administrators last week, and hopes to re-employ some 600 staff made redundant from those contracts. The agreement with Mears came as KPMG announced a further 400 redundancies at Connaught after announcing 700 cuts on Friday.

The construction group Morgan Sindall on Friday agreed to take on the majority of contracts at Connaught Partnerships, the social housing arm, saving 2,500 jobs.