Bosses at the Oxfordshire branch of building services firm Rok are optimistic despite the company seeing its fortunes slide.

The group, which has a maintenance arm in Eynsham, revealed pre-tax losses of £3.8m in the six months to June 30 after major restructuring at its troubled plumbing division.

But Stuart Evans, regional construction director for London and the South East, said the firm’s order book was full for the rest of the year and 70 per cent complete for the next 12 months with a total value of about £28m.

Projects include the £2.5m redevelopment of the Old Fire Station in George Street, Oxford to transform it into an arts and education centre for young homeless people.

It is also working on the refurbishment of the Barton, Ferry Pool and Blackbird Leys leisure centres for Oxford City Council and the Trajan House office development on the city’s Mill Street.

Mr Evans said the company had not been part of the Building Schools for the Future programme which has been scrapped by the Coalition Government and was continuing to work on individual schools including the Fitzwarren School in Abingdon.

He added: “The projects we are dealing with are smaller in value than before but we have managed to retain the workforce.”

Rok warned in April that profitability at the plumbing, heating and electrical business (PHE) had been hit by a number of underperforming contracts.

It carried out a restructuring and terminated the troublesome contracts before calling in accountancy firm BDO to conduct an independent review.

Last week it announced the suspension of chief financial officer Ashley Martin, after BDO found serious failings in financial controls at PHE.