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Construction Industry Market Review 2006
Key Note Publications Ltd, June 2006
This Market Review analyses the UK construction industry, which is a major sector in the UK economy. The construction industry has a high political and social profile, as a result of its key role in providing housing, its impact on the environment and its part as a major employer. In 2005, the output of the construction industry in Great Britain was £107.01bn, a rise of 4.5% on 2004.
In this Market Review, the construction industry is analysed in terms of five sectors: housebuilding, infrastructure, industrial construction, commercial construction and building materials. An overview analysis of the whole industry is also included. By value, the most significant sector is commercial work, followed by housebuilding (excluding repair and maintenance), whereas the infrastructure and industrial sectors are far smaller. Between them, commercial construction and housebuilding (excluding repair and maintenance) account for around 45% of total construction industry output. Details of output are given for subsectors in each main type of work, i.e.: housebuilding (private and public); infrastructure (roads; water; gas, air and communications; railways; sewerage; electricity; and harbours); industrial construction (factories, warehouses, and oil, steel and coal); and commercial construction (offices, schools and colleges, universities, entertainment, health, garages, shops, agriculture and miscellaneous).
As a whole, the construction industry faces important challenges. The sustainability of resources, energy, water and supplies to provide socially acceptable and environmentally compatible building is a major theme, particularly to achieve these aims at an agreeable price. The built environment makes a significant contribution to the UK's greenhouse-gas emissions and the Government is seeking ways in which these can be reduced. Planning consent for construction work is often a major problem, largely as a result of difficulties in satisfying government planning regulations.
In addition, the construction industry is the subject of increasing legislation across a broad spectrum of topics relating to employees, customers, energy and natural resources. Economically, some sectors of the construction industry have not grown as rapidly as they might, owing to delays in government programmes. The shortage of skilled labour continues to be a problem.
Individual subsectors also face specific challenges. In the housebuilding sector, there is a shortage of housing, and this is unlikely to ease in the short term, unless planning regulations are relaxed and a substantial affordable-housing programme makes an impact: high house prices exclude many prospective first-time buyers from the housing market. The infrastructure subsectors have experienced a decline in work, much of which is due to delayed programmes in, for example, transport. However, there are signs of an upturn in this area.
The industrial construction sector has experienced a growth in warehouse construction work, but the factory sector is likely to remain subdued as the UK loses manufacturing jobs to cheaper manufacturing centres overseas. Commercial construction work benefits from major Private Finance Initiative (PFI) programmes in education and health, although some of these have been delayed. Output from office construction is particularly important in the commercial sector, while work in the retail subsector faces increasing planning restrictions.
In the building materials subsector, there are challenges relating to rising energy costs and environmental issues, such as sustainable material sources, disposal of waste and recycling. New materials are being investigated to accommodate improved environmental features; for example, reducing heat loss and simplifying construction methods.
Regarding the future, PFI work will continue to be important, much of it for a total-package approach to construction, with private companies being involved in finance, operation and maintenance, as well as in the design and construction processes. The continuing skills shortage will continue in the short term, or until initiatives such as training take effect to give a longer-term solution. To help increase the proportion of affordable housing, developments will continue through the use of new materials and prefabricated construction through the use of structural insulated panels, for example. Sustainability will also be an increasingly important theme embracing many factors, such as climate change, reduced energy consumption and the development of socially acceptable communities in which to live. The new Trustmark scheme should help homeowners to avoid `cowboy' builders and, in the medium term, the 2012 Olympic Games in London should provide a variety of opportunities for the construction industry.
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