Alan Robertson, chief executive of Volker Wessels UK, has called for a snap general election to end what he calls the “paralysis within government”

Speaking after the building and civils company announced healthy results for the year ended 31 December 2008, Robertson said the malaise within the Brown government meant spending decisions had been shelved.

He said: “If we wait until next spring before holding an election we will continue to have a lame duck government that won’t take big decisions. We will also be 15 to 18 months behind the US in terms of economic recovery.”

Robertson said he had no preference for a Conservative or Labour administration but that the uncertainty was the problem.

The Dutch company, which rebranded and restructured its UK business this year, made a pre-tax profit of £17.5m last year, a 51% increase on £11.6m in 2007. Turnover across the group, which includes the Volker Fitzpatrick and Volker Highways businesses, rose 23% from £365.5m to £448.9m.

Robertson said: “It was a record year for us, and our building and civils divisions picked up some big contracts.” He said the turnover contribution of the building arm was about £200m but was likely to fall in 2009 from about half of its turnover to a third.

The civils business would grow, he added, despite the fact that projects were taking up to nine months to get on site. “In 2010, there is a reasonable likelihood we will have a stronger year than 2009 or 2008 in civils.”

He said the Dutch parent group was looking to boost its UK presence with acquisitions, likely to be in the civil engineering sector.