Construction contract awards ‘strong’ in February23 March 2020

The latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analyst Barbour ABI shows that the total value of construction contract awards across Great Britain in February 2020 was £6.5 billion based on a three-month rolling average. This is an increase of 16.9% on January and is 19.9% higher than February 2019.

Quarterly analysis shows that in the three months ending February 2020, the total value of construction contract awards was £16.6 billion – 10.6% higher than the previous quarter and an increase of 5.9% on the comparable quarter ending February 2019.

The review found that the number of construction contract awards was 1,003 which is 12.3% higher than January.

Furthermore, the residential sector dominated with an attributable share of 57.0% of contract awards and was followed by infrastructure, which attracted 21.7% of all construction contract awards. Meanwhile, the region with the largest proportion of contract awards in February was London with 20.5%.This was followed by the North West region with attributable share of 14.6%. At the other end of the scale, Wales was the smallest region with just 2.4% of construction contract awards.

Tom Hall, chief economist at Barbour ABI and AMA Research, says: “Contract awards were strong in February, and with the UK Budget announcement, promised investment should see contract awards hold up - particularly for the residential and infrastructure sectors.

“However, despite the proposed funding, with the rapid spread of Coronavirus across the globe, the trend is likely to be downwards from here and significant government action will be needed to support businesses and citizens as the social and economic impacts are felt.”

Adam Offord

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