UK support services and construction service provider Carillion has recorded a healthy set of interim results, with profit before tax up 17% at £58.8m for the six months ending 30 June 2010; close to £9m higher that during the same period last year.

However, revenue shrank 11% to £2.51bn (H1 2009: £2.83bn), owed to the disposal of non-core businesses, the sale of equity investments in public-private partnership (PPP) projects, among other things.

Earlier in August, the firm was awarded a five-year extension to its existing infrastructure contracts with EDF Energy Networks, worth £40m a year.

Under the extension, which is set to kick in January 2011, Carillion will deliver infrastructure services for sub-stations and cabling to support the electricity network in the East of England.

The coalition government’s spending review, due in October. With projects such as the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) being axed, many in the construction and outsourcing community are waiting to get a better grasp of the extent to which cuts to public spending will affect them.