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Kier came top of the contractor鈥檚 league for the second month running thanks to the 拢181m, 1,620-place Featherstone prison in Wolverhampton.

No wonder it flagged up the importance of its 52 public and private framework deals at a trading update on Monday. Its other wins in October included a 拢18m Decent Homes deal in Suffolk.

鈥淭hese frameworks will help us to maintain our workloads at least through to 2011 and beyond,鈥� the contractor told the City.

The news prompted analysts at stockbroker Cazenove to say: 鈥淲e are increasingly of the view that there is a two-tier UK construction market emerging: those with and those without frameworks. Kier (has) the luxury of not having to chase revenue at low margins as is the case for those competing in the largely fixed-price non-framework market.鈥�

The point is reinforced when civils work is taken into account. Amey tops this leaderboard on the basis of two deals with Network Rail worth a combined 拢302m.

A 拢50m project for the same client helped Carillion reach the number two spot.

Overall, the top 30 contractors in the non-civils table won 275 projects worth 拢1.7bn, almost identical to a year ago. Arguably it鈥檚 not the best comparison: October 2008 was, after all, the month that Garvis Snook, the Rok chief executive, said the industry鈥檚 鈥渓ights went out鈥�. Rewind 12 more months to October 2007 and the top 30 won 363 jobs worth 拢2.3bn, which is about a third more than this year.

Balfour Beatty continued its rise as the UK鈥檚 largest contractor by winning 40 deals worth 拢177.6m, including two in education: a 拢77m student accommodation deal for Exeter University; and a 拢57m deal for the National Academies Framework in Lincolnshire.

In third spot was Sir Robert McAlpine, with wins that included a 拢92m indoor sports arena and velodrome for Glasgow council and a 拢50m business school and student hub for Manchester Metropolitan University.