Construction company Kier's order book with local government continues to rise as it announced its pre-tax profits rose by 19.8% last year.

The firm's interim results for the six months up to December 2006, which were published last week, revealed that the support services order book now stood at £1,309m, compared with £1,137m in 2004. Pre-tax profits for the period were £28.4m, compared with £23.7m in 2004.