Two of the industry's leading entrepreneurs have died within three weeks of each other.
David Telling, founder and former chairman of support services group Mitie, died aged 65 last Friday after a cancer-related illness.

Former Tarmac chief executive and chairman Sir Eric Pountain lost his fight against lung cancer at the age of 70 on 19 October.

Telling only stepped down as a non-executive director of Mitie last month. Chief executive Ian Stewart paid tribute to his business skills: "David was a very successful entrepreneur and gave people at Mitie the opportunity to earn wealth beyond their wildest dreams."

Sir Eric Pountain, the UK's businessman of the year in 1987, turned Tarmac into the country's biggest housebuilder in the 1980s.

Pountain had a distinguished career. He co-founded housebuilder Midland & General in 1964, which was bought by John McLean & Sons five years later. Pountain headed up the enlarged group, which was itself bought by Tarmac a decade later. In 1979, Pountain was made Tarmac's group chief executive.