SECTOR UPDATE
- Civil engineering contractors are currently continuing to experience a buoyant infrastructure market with order books and forward opportunities exceeding pre-Covid levels in many cases.
- Material shortages and raw material price rises have become a major source of concern, for example cement, aggregates, timber and in particular structural steel which has seen price hikes of over 50% since last summer.
- Whilst the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda provides a major source of future infrastructure funding nationally, the South West isn’t getting very much of a ‘look in’ with deprived areas elsewhere in the UK taking priority. Torbay, Torridge and the Isles of Scilly are the only designated high priority areas in our region so there could well be an increasing risk of shovel ready schemes not going ahead as soon as planned due to funding delays.
- Alongside the need for more resources and skills – ‘people issues’ (a constant headache for contractors), net zero continues to sit at the top of contractors’ agendas. Clients and contractors are working more collaboratively to address the issues surrounding low carbon.