Construction company Bateman Groundworks has won two new contracts worth more than £5m.

Work has already started on building roads and sewers for a housing development at Little Plumstead, near Norwich, for Beccles-based Cripps Developments, a new client for Bateman.

A team will be on site for the second contract for Bovis Homes at Wymondham in about two weeks. It is the third phase of the development that the company has worked on.

Bateman, which is based in Little Plumstead, plans to recruit 34 new staff in the next six months to service the new sites.

It is looking at another five future residential projects in east north Norfolk, north Norfolk and Norwich with an anticipated growth of 35pc this year.

It also anticipates a buoyant few years as housing is forecast to increase 5-10pc year-on-year.

The new contracts come after it won £12.5m of work in October with major housebuilders for three developments in Norfolk. The company now has teams on 16 housebuilding sites with major developers across the region.

Managing director Richard Bateman is hopeful for a turnover of around £23m this year after the Brexit-effect of stalled contracts hit its turnover last year.

A busy January and February, with contracts they had hoped to start last year now coming through, was putting the company on target for another year of healthy growth in its 20th anniversary year, he said.

He said: 'We went into last year with high hopes after a good 2015 but work stalled amid the uncertainty of the Brexit referendum had an effect on our order books and led to our turnover suffering and growth flat-lining after three years of consistent good growth.

'Our turnover was down but our profits were up.

'We started 2017 cautious about what to expect but it has been an incredibly busy start with some of the work we hoped for last year coming up for starting now.'