Roger Hogg
Chair, Global Research Committee
The mix of considerations and effects varies from location to location, but the component parts are fairly common to all, and government policy changes and alterations in emphasis can have a marked overall effect. Doubt as to when the next general election will be called introduces a whole new layer of uncertainty.
Introduction
Welcome to the Q1 2024 edition of Construction Market Intelligence, the new digital publication incorporating RLB’s quarterly tender price forecast.
As always, our aim is to provide the data, insights and analysis that will enable you to fully understand what is happening, and what is likely to happen, in construction around the UK.
In this edition we report that tender price uplifts are continuing to ease, as we forecast last quarter, though alongside ongoing input cost inflation and competitive imperatives facing participants throughout the construction supply chain.
More widely, geopolitical concerns remain unresolved, and in fact have been added to in recent months, producing continuing concerns particularly in respect of materials’ supply. Meanwhile, the Bank of England’s official interest rate still sits at its highest level since February 2008.
Although the recent sharp uplifts in construction materials’ price inflation have relented, and in some cases reversed somewhat, we are seeing continuing labour shortages, notwithstanding that project completions have in some locations released key trades contractors’ employees back into the market.
Insolvencies and increasing urgency for contractors and subcontractors to fill dwindling order books are parallel concerns, while project viability constrains developers and limits bidding opportunities.
