If auditors think they are busy now pitching their services to new and existing clients, they need to brace themselves for an even busier time ahead in the FTSE 250 market, currently valued at £185m (2014: £177m), according to Accountancy’s latest survey of the FTSE 250 sector. A year ago, there was a fear that companies in the FTSE 250 had not fully focused on the coming requirements to put their external audit contracts out to tender.

But the latest survey of who audits whom in this second-highest tier of blue chip companies, and for how much and how long, reveals that the market has well and truly woken up.