Tonkiss, who was previously national operations director at the group, joined McCarthy in February 2014.

Before that, he worked for student accommodation provider Unite Group for 10 years, becoming group CFO in 2008.

Chief executive officer Clive Fenton said: “We are delighted to announce John’s appointment to the role of Chief Operating Officer. John has made an excellent contribution to the group since joining us in 2014 and becoming a main board director in 2015. He has driven our three key initiatives to shorten our working capital cycle and these have had a significant and positive impact on our overall efficiency programme as we seek to deliver our strategic growth targets.”