Daily rates are also at a record high: the average paid is £585, an increase of 5.4 per cent from 2006. According to chairman Charles Russam, rates start at around £300 and go into the thousands for the most senior and in-demand managers.

‘For the first time ever, we are seeing demand for interim managers putting serious pressure on supply, which no doubt accounts for the daily rate increases,’ says Russam. ‘However, this is tempered by strong client pressures to keep rates down, coming from procurement professionals – themselves now in greater demand.’

Russam tells GrowthBusiness.co.uk that it is harder now to fill interim positions than at any time during the past 25 years.

‘We’re still getting a lot of interims saying “put me forward”, but a lot of them are then pulling out because they’ve found another job,’ he explains. ‘That’s never happened before.’

According to Russam, there may be 20,000 to 30,000 interim managers in the UK, about 15,000 of whom are registered with agencies.