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Construction Forecast Downgraded

Forecasters have lowered construction growth predictions for this year and next owing to a slowdown in third quarter housing and commercial activity.

Even with a weaker growth forecast, contractors can still count a near 20% rise in construction from 2015 to 2019. This will be driven by growth in the three largest construction sectors; private housing, commercial and infrastructure.

According to the Construction Products Association industry output is now expected to grow 3.6% in 2015, down from the expected 4.9% spurt forecast back in the summer.

Next year the industry’s growth rate is expected to be slightly ahead of 2015 at 3.8%, down from the 4.2% first forecast.

Forecast highlights

Construction growth downgraded

 

 

Construction output: up 3.6% in 2015 and 3.8% in 2016
Private housing starts: up 7% this year and 5% in 2016
Public housing starts: down 10% in 2015 and 5% in 2016
Offices construction: up 8% in 2015 and 7% in 2016
Infrastructure output: up 13.2% in 2015 and 7.6% in 2016
Key risks include skills shortages and government austerity

 

 

 

Dr Noble Francis, economics director, said: “We remain positive about prospects for the construction industry. The slowdown in Q3 activity is expected to be temporary.”

“The commercial sector is forecast to enjoy growth from 2016 averaging 3.9% per year through to 2019. New offices construction is expected to be the primary driver, with increasing activity in cities such as Birmingham and Manchester as well as growth in the capital.”

“Retail construction is expected to improve but a consolidation of expansion plans by major supermarket chains will constrain growth rates.”

“Infrastructure activity continues to thrive. Output in the sector is forecast to grow 11.2% on average per year between 2015 and 2019, supported in large part by the £411bn National Infrastructure Plan.”

He said that the roads and energy sub-sectors would be strongest but work is forecast to increase throughout the forecast period in all key sub-sectors; roads, energy, rail, water and sewerage.

“Private housing starts are forecast to rise, with major house builders signalling their intention to build more homes over the next 12-18 months,” said Dr Francis.

“Help to Buy accounts for one quarter of new build purchases and will help to sustain demand. House prices continue to increase in most regions, especially in London and the South East, illustrating a strong underlying demand.”

“Public housing, however, is expected to be adversely affected by uncertainty and a lack of funding due to the extension of Right to Buy to housing associations and cuts to social rent. As a result, public housing starts are estimated to fall 10.0% in 2015 and a further 5.0% in 2016.”

But Dr Francis warned: “While growth prospects in construction remain positive, there are significant risks. Government austerity focuses on current spending rather than capital investment but the risk remains that if government cannot reduce current spending as much as it anticipates, it may cut public construction projects to achieve its aims of eliminating the public sector deficit.”

“In addition, within the construction industry, the key concerns regard skills shortages, which have already been reported in the housing sector but may become more prevalent across the wider industry over the next 12-18 months due to the forecast growth.”

This story is by constructionenquirer.com

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Construction Boom Continues

Construction still booming say buyers

Construction Boom
Construction buyers reported the fastest rise in new work for 12 months in October.

The rebound in new order growth was highlighted in the latest Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI index report which also showed the highest rate of construction job creation for nearly a year.

Commercial building was the main driver of growth as work accelerated sharply.

The figures cast huge doubts on recent GDP figures claiming a construction slowdown is acting as a drag on the UK economy.

The overall index registered 58.8 in October, which was down from 59.9 in September but still well above the 50.0 no-change threshold.

The latest survey marked two-and-a-half years of sustained output growth across the UK construction sector.

Construction companies remain highly upbeat about their prospects for growth over the next 12 months, with more than half (59%) forecasting a rise in business activity and only 7% expecting a decline.

Tim Moore, Senior Economist at Markit and author of the Markit/CIPS Construction PMI, said : “October’s survey indicates that the UK construction sector remains firmly in expansion mode, although commercial building work was the only category to experience faster growth than in September.

“Another relatively buoyant construction PMI reading indicates that the sector remains in rude health.

“Rather than acting as a drag on the economy, as suggested by recent GDP estimates, the sector is continuing to act as an important driving force behind the ongoing UK economic upturn.”

Stefan Friedhoff, Global Corporates managing director for construction at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Optimism continues to be more prevalent than pessimism in the sector.

“The downbeat data from the Office for National Statistics released last week will have jarred some, but others will remain sanguine.

“Looking at recent results from some of construction’s bigger players, there is evidence that operating margins are slowly increasing to their best levels since the recession.

“This is heartening and suggests that the rhetoric around being more selective about work taken on is beginning to translate into improving operating performance.”

This story is by constructionenquirer.com

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£100bn for Infrastructure by 2020

Chancellor pledges £100bn by 2020 for infrastructure

 

George Osbourne
Chancellor George Osborne will today launch the National Infrastructure Commission and promise to stick to his pledge to spend £100bn in this Parliament for new roads, rail, flood defences and other vital projects.

He will set out plans to ‘get Britain building’, saying that infrastructure will be at the heart of next month’s Spending Review.

In the review, the Chancellor will set out plans to raise billions of pounds from a suite of asset sales that will be ploughed back into infrastructure projects.

Later today in York, Osborne will also confirm the seven commissioners who will help former Cabinet minister Lord Adonis run the independent National Infrastructure Commission.

The line-up includes Lord Heseltine and experienced industry bigwig, Sir John Armitt, who backed the formation of the commission in a Labour policy document before the last election.

NIC commissioners
Lord Heseltine – the former deputy prime minister who has long championed the regeneration of Britain’s inner cities through infrastructure investment
Sir John Armitt – the former chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority, and next year’s President of the Institute of Civil Engineers
Professor Tim Besley – a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee and the LSE’s Growth Commission, which recommended an independent infrastructure body
Demis Hassabis – artificial intelligence researcher, neuroscientist and head of DeepMind Technologies
Sadie Morgan – a founding director of dRMM Architects and Design Panel Chair of HS2
Bridget Rosewell – a senior adviser at Volterra and former Chief Economist and Chief Economic Adviser to the Greater London Authority
Sir Paul Ruddock – chairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the University of Oxford Endowment

The Chancellor said: “I am determined to shake Britain out of its inertia on infrastructure and end the situation where we trail our rivals when it comes to building everything from the housing to the power stations that our children will need.

“At the Spending Review, I will commit to investing £100bn in infrastructure over the next five years and we are creating an independent commission to give us a long-term, unbiased analysis of the country’s major infrastructure needs.

“We need to think long-term and deliver a cross-party consensus on what we need to build.”

The commission will produce a report at the start of each five-year Parliament, offering recommendations for priority infrastructure projects and hold governments to account for their delivery.

Its initial focus will be in three key areas. These include identifying priorities for future investment in the North’s strategic transport infrastructure to improve connectivity between cities, especially east-west across the Pennines.

London’s transport system, particularly reviewing strategic options and identifying priorities for future investment in large scale transport improvements – on road, rail and underground – including Crossrail 2.

Energy, particularly exploring how the UK can better balance supply and demand, aiming for an energy market where prices are reflective of costs to the overall system

This story is by constructionenquirer.com

 

 

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Barhale To Use Drones

Barhale calls in drones for Anglian Water alliance

Drones

Barhale is turning to ‘eye in the sky’ drone technology to deliver a major alliance works programme for Anglian Water.

The civil engineering firm plans to spend £1.3m over the next five years with drone specialist Geocurve to help deliver the initial AMP6 term of its 15-year framework agreement, said to be worth up to £1.25bn.

It has been hailed as a ground-breaking deal by Strato Aero, US parent company of Geocurve, that starts to mirror North America where drones are used more commonly to survey work and check the progress of workers.

The drones will be used for inspection and surveying as Barhale delivers schemes ranging from the design and build of major infrastructure networks and treatment works, to tackling flooding, water quality improvements and maintenance of existing assets.

Barhale is working in collaboration with both the operational and asset management teams within Anglian Water and the wider supply chain to drive a more efficient working programme of maintenance and capital works.

Tony Dunleavy, CEO of Strat Aero, said: “We firmly believe this market is set to grow exponentially in the years ahead as UAVs transform business practices and provide considerable cost savings to customers across a diverse range of sectors.”

“Upon finalisation, the £1.3m Barhale contract will be the first the group has secured since we launched our broader strategy to become a full global solutions provider in the rapidly emerging high growth unmanned aerial vehicle sector.”

This article is by constructionenquirer.com

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Construction in 2045

Is this what construction will be like in 2045
Equipment hire specialist Hewden has taken a peak into the future of construction to predict how the industry will look in 2045.

The report envisages a world of 30km tall buildings with spaceports, driverless vehicles and mini-cities in the sky while site workers will have super-strength exoskeletons creating half-man, half-machine operatives that can utilise a range of attachments.

Hewden’s 2045: Constructing the Future report has been developed by renowned futurologist Ian Pearson and was launched today to coincide with the date Marty McFly and Dr Emmett Brown time-travelled to in the ‘80s blockbuster movie, Back to the Future II.

The report takes a look at what the UK might look like in another 30 years, covering areas such as building design, transport, technology and health and safety.

Pearson said: “While we’re not all flying around in cars, there are a number of things, such as the use of drones, video conferencing and some of the physical structures that were portrayed very accurately in the movie.

“The acceleration of new technology has and will continue to be the biggest driver for change. As will look forward another 30 years we can expect to see a very different but exciting world.”

Some of the key findings of the report include:

Skyline 2045

The London Skyline in 2045 will have super-tall structures and a spaceport

Cars 2045

In 2045 driverless vehicles will be the norm. Unlike the more futuristic curved look, vehicles will likely be box shaped to maximise on-street capacity.

Exo Skeleton 2045
Builders will have super-strength exoskeletons creating half-man, half-machine workers that can utilise a range of attachments.

 

Pearson added: “Augmented reality will play a major role in the aesthetics of a building.

“It’s likely that many buildings will actually be very plain, instead using AR to create visually appealing environments for those that visit.”

Heavily populated cities such as London are likely to change the most, according to the report, with space travel and development of new cities within cities some of the major changes.

Pearson said: “The use of super-strong carbon-based materials will enable us to build incredibly tall structures, some even up to 30km high.

“This will make space travel more convenient and for major transport hubs like London, going into space will be a regular occurrence in 2045.

“A few of these structures may be so large that their capacity enables them to function as small cities in their own right, with all the usual city functions mixed within the same building.”

This story is by constructionenquirer.com

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International Construction Recruitment AgencyEdge Logo International Construction Recruitment Agency

 

 

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