The boss of Atkins' UK division has backed calls to devolve more infrastructure powers and funding to cities.

Speaking to The MJ, David Tonkin said ‘there is a big focus and a big effort' by ministers to increase infrastructure spending, which he said was ‘moving in the right direction' as the company announced its recent set of half-yearly financial results.

Mr Tonkin said it was also ‘an encouraging move that the cities are increasingly getting control and understanding about what they need to have in place'.

‘They [cities] are going to know that better in terms of the connectivity they need to make their city work.

‘The more funds provided to them to help target that work is encouraging.'

Mr Tonkin added Atkins is still committed to the highways sector, despite the recent sale of its highways services division.

‘We haven't backed out of highways – far from it,' he told The MJ.

Atkins sold its UK highways services division to Skanska UK earlier this year with more than 1,000 staff transferring over, but Mr Tonkin said: ‘I've still got 1,000 staff dedicated to highways. That's 1,000 planners, engineers and strategists who are all dedicated.

‘I think there's a great opportunity with all the announcements about future schemes.

‘My drive over the last three years has been increasingly to enable all the services of Atkins to be provided to all its clients.

We want our highways team to pull more diverse services into highways.'

Mr Tonkin singled out Atkins' management consultancy division for helping to spread best practice by local authorities on filling in and repairing potholes.

According to its latest set of results, Atkins' pre-tax profits increased by 8.2% in the six months to 30 September.

Revenue increased by 12.2% to £915.4m.