Welcome to the first edition of Construction Market Intelligence, the new name – along with a new look and digital format – of RLB’s quarterly tender price forecast.

This still has, as its foundation, a combination of data extracted from reputable national economic data and statistical sources, backed by RLB’s expert analysis and updates of regional markets and tender price movements as well as insights into key industry sectors.

Together, this places location at the centre of market discussion and commentary, rather than general consideration of the market nationwide. This focus reflects the reality of regional conditions, which may be quite variable around the country. Only when local conditions are understood in detail can the effect of national economic trends and shocks be parsed into real-world impacts at local level.

Currently, while conditions vary across the country, there is a backcloth of common economic issues, notably the Bank of England’s official interest rate sitting at its highest level since February 2008. With the recent sharp uplifts in construction materials’ price inflation, continuing labour shortages, some notable insolvencies and now gaps developing in contractors’ and subcontractors’ workload pipelines, there are challenging times ahead.

Construction Market Intelligence, by bringing the local and national aspects together, is designed to produce a comprehensive view of the market, at a point in time and looking forward. This is core to our aim of improving accessibility to the data that readers need to fully understand movements and change in the construction sector around the United Kingdom.