“Of course it rankles, they were hard blows to take.”

Bovis chief executive David Cadiot is recalling the time when, in the wake of previous owner Lendlease’s decision to sell its UK construction business, jobs it thought it had won began to melt away as uncertainty about its future took over.

Two years ago this month, Lendlease said it was selling the business it had owned for 25 years. It was a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK meaning its timing was queried – some said it was insensitive to announce it when everyone was off work, given it was also selling businesses in the US when it was a public holiday over there as well.

Cadiot says he was told the day of the announcement. “We had an inkling it might happen though we thought it might happen a couple of years later. It was a big shock to the business as a whole.”