EnterpriseMouchel is thought to be planning to reduce staff by a quarter on its Area 3 contract in central southern England.

The company has held a Managing Agent Contractor contract with the Highways Agency for Area 3 since 2008. In November this year EnterpriseMouchel will begin a new Asset Support Contract (ASC) in Area 3.

The new ASC is worth up to £140M a year and will run until 2018. It is understood that redundancies in Area 3 will particularly affect the asset development team. The company declined to comment further.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: “It is for our contractors to make the necessary business decisions about the number of people needed to fulfill their contractual obligations.

“We and our contractors always put the safety of road users and road workers first when prioritising maintenance and improvements and we will continue to do so.”

The advantage of the new contracts, the spokesman added, is that they are not prescriptive on how jobs are done and it is for contract winners to decide on what staff and equipment to deploy for specific jobs.

New style ASCs will form the basis for delivering maintenance, renewal and improvement services for most parts of England's motorway and trunk road network. The contracts are expected to deliver substantial savings over the current arrangements.

“Better value is what we are looking for – from our contractors, on behalf of the taxpayer – not reductions in network maintenance or safety, therefore safety standards will still be maintained,” the Highways Agency spokesman added.

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