Tony Lenehan, the head of Bovis Lend Lease’s north of England business, is to leave the company as part of a restructuring of its executive team, writes Tom Bill.

The decision was announced in an internal memo last week, which also said the hunt for a permanent replacement for Nick Pollard, the former UK chief executive, was continuing.

Julian Daniel, formerly head of southern England and Wales, will become executive general manager of England and Wales.

Two sources attributed Lenehan’s exit to the fact that the Australian-based company was not winning enough work in the north of England to warrant a separate division. The split was amicable, they added.

Gordon Anderson will remain operations director for Scotland.

One source close to the process said: “This is about taking some of the overhead out of the business, but the bigger picture is all about the integration of the UK company into the Lend Lease parent organisation.”

Daniel Labbad took over as chief executive for Lend Lease Europe in April. Since then, there has been a series of changes at the company, including the departure of Pollard, which Building revealed in June.

Bovis and the other UK businesses, including the PFI operation Catalyst, have been brought under Labbad’s control rather than reporting to head office in Australia.

It is understood the company is happy to keep Pollard’s job open for several months for the right candidate to become available.

In further changes, it is understood that Peter Varga, UK head of operations, will return to the parent company in Australia.

In June it emerged that Lend Lease had banned Bovis from working in the nuclear sector on ethical grounds.

The bigger picture is all about the integration of the UK company into the parent

Bovis Lend Lease source