Lecram Holdings, the investment vehicle of Adam Smith, which has built a 5% stake in the online estate agency and long called for chairman Paul Pindar to step down, has reacted to the latest announcement by the company.

Purplebricks unexpectedly announced late last week that Steve Long will leave his role as chief financial officer at the company on 1 November, less than a year after taking the position at the troubled online estate agency.

It is the latest in a string of boardroom changes at Purplebricks which is under fire from Smith over its rapid cash burn and a steep fall in its share price.

In a statement, Smith said he was “extremely surprised” to see the finance chief leave the company.

He commented: “Under Paul Pindar’s stewardship, Purplebricks has gone through four chief executives and five chief financial officers, which is a factor in why it has underperformed so badly.

“How long are shareholders prepared to wait for the chairman to accept responsibility and step down so we can end this circus and stabilise the company?”

Long will be replaced by Dominique Highfield, who has held finance roles at Sainsbury’s and Amazon.

Helena Marston, chief executive of Purplebricks, said: “Dominique is a seasoned financial executive and is well-equipped to work with our senior executive team to help us return to sales growth and gross margin improvement at pace.”

Highfield’s appointment came just days after Marston warned of a wave of redundancies at the company.

On Monday, the cheif executive told employees that they “will be invited to a meeting” to discuss their position as the company needs to take “necessary steps” to improve its “financial performance”.

In August, Purplebricks warned it could cut jobs after spending more than £25m on advertising last year.

Purplebricks has said it will aim to save £13m over the next year – a 16% reduction in its operating cost base.

Purplebricks share price hits all-time low after job cuts announcement