Balfour Beatty’s Scottish office helped to lift the firm to pole position in the contracts league for the first time since the start of this year.

The Scottish region has signed off three big building projects: The HMP Highland and design and build of a new hospital in Fort William and the refurbishment of Caithness General in Wick for NHS Highlands, together worth an estimated £270m.

Morgan Sindall came in second place with 18 contract wins totalling just over £260m.

The biggest projects included a £50m-plus housing scheme for Your Housing in Cheshire and the £40m Ardrossan Community Campus secondary school scheme in Ayrshire.

According to data compiled by Barbour ABI, the total value of awards secured by the 50 most successful contractors totalled £2.78bn, representing 124 projects. This was around 16% down in value terms on the previous month but just four projects below October’s figure.

In the rolling 12-month league of wins, Morgan Sindall took top ranking, on the strength of its contract haul last month, pushing Bouygues into second and Balfour into third place.

Among the other big contract wins Farrans landed the £100m Leeds Bradford Airport terminal expansion. Also in Yorkshire Graham signed off on the £87m A164 and Jock’s Lodge Improvement Scheme, which is set to begin in spring.

In London, Scape Living awarded JJ Rhatigan the build contract for a nine storey building of 272 flats and music venue at 1 Blackhorse Road in Walthamstow.

In East London, contractor Ardmore picked up the £75m Hackney Yards project to build 190 flats across floor blocks next to the new Hackney Wick station.