The total value of construction contract awards in April 2020 was £4.4 billion based on a three-month rolling average. This is a decrease of 36.4% on March and is also 16.1% Lower than April 2019. It is also the lowest monthly value recorded since June 2018. Contract awards numbers in April decreased by 45.5% to 314, approximately 68.7% below the recent high point of 1,003 recorded for February 2020.
The latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analysts Barbour ABI, highlights levels of construction contract values awarded across Great Britain.
The Infrastructure sector dominated the share of contract awards with a total of 31.2%. The two largest infrastructure contract awards were the A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross and the Bridgwater Resource Recovery facility and were also the two largest overall contracts awarded in April 2020.
Since reporting on contract awards in April, 33 of those projects have now confirmed to be on hold, at a total value of £178 million.
Commenting on the figures, Tom Hall, Chief Economist at Barbour ABI and AMA Research said, “We expected a large fall in contract awards for April, however we are seeing increasing on-site activity as large of projects re-open. The Infrastructure Sector has been the less impacted than other sectors, leading to hopes of an Infrastructure-led recovery towards the end of the year. We will continue to monitor closely the impact the current situation will have on the future pipeline of contract awards. Nonetheless we expect to see a continued decline in contract awards in the short term.”