Comparative contract value is also 33% down on November 2015, according to the Economic & Construction Market Review for January. The total contract value for January came in at £5.3 billion.
Retail was the most prosperous area of construction. The sub-sector brought in £1.4bn, despite seeing the contract value fall by 36% from December. A strong demand for office space saw commercial & residential contracts bring in £800m. More than half of this (£500m) came from the recently-commissioned 22 Bishopsgate office complex in London.
Welsh construction also received a boost in January as the £450m Anglesey power station Wylfa was agreed, with Hitachi taking the lead on the infrastructure project.
Barbour ABI lead economist, Michael Dall was still optimistic about the future despite a “relatively slow start for construction in terms of contract value”.
“The industry pipeline is relatively strong and I’m expecting to see a flurry of £100 million plus projects to get agreed over the coming months,” he predicted.
“However the industry does need to be wary of a growing trend of major contractors not being able to agree a final price with clients, largely due to cost inflation and skills shortages.”
