The latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analysts Barbour ABI, highlights levels of construction contract values awarded across Britain.
The value of all construction contracts awarded in January 2020 was £5.5 billion based on a three-month rolling average. This is an increase of 18.5% on December 2019 and is also 2.1% ahead of January 2019.
In the three-month period ending January 2020, total construction contract awards were valued at £15.6 billion, 7.1% higher than the previous quarter and 5.1% higher than the comparable quarter ending January 2019. In January the number of construction contract awards was 893, an increase of 95.4% on December 2019.
The largest sector this month was infrastructure with attributable share of 42.7% of awards with the residential sector in second place attracting share of 25.5%. The infrastructure sector accounted for the two largest contract awards this month with combined value of £3 billion. The largest contract award was the £2 billion Dogger Bank Creyke Beck 1.4GW offshore wind farm. The second largest contract award was the £1 billion Silvertown Tunnel project in London for a new car crossing between Thamesmead and Beckton.
Regional analysis indicates that London maintained its leading position, accounting for 32.5% of all construction contract awards. Yorkshire and Humber was the second largest region in January with 26.6%. With the two leading regions accounting for 59.1% of all awards this month, the remaining regions all attracted significantly smaller individual share (all under 10%) with Scotland and the East of England vying for third place with respective share of 6.5% and 6.4% of construction contract awards.
Tom Hall, chief economist at Barbour ABI and AMA Research said: “January’s strong contracts awards data suggests construction industry activity may be starting to respond after a clear general election result and the UK’s exit from the EU finally occurring, even if it is largely symbolic at this early stage. Whether the fog of uncertainty descends again as the upcoming UK-EU talks commence remains to be seen. Positive signs, such as the approval of HS2, indicate growth for the sector but at the moment it is too soon to tell whether January’s increase will convert into a sustained boom for the industry.”
