Contract awards increase 23% in November

The latest information from Builders’ Conference shows that there were 447 contracts worth £5.1 billion awarded in November. This is an improvement after the dip in October and the industry will be hoping that activity holds up in the New Year and the emergence of the Omicron COVID‐19 variant does not cause too much disruption.

76% of all the contracts awarded by value were in the private sector. There were 156 housing projects worth £2 billion (38%), 60 office projects totalling £527 million (10%), 80 education projects worth £480 million (9%), and 20 industrial projects with a total value of £418 million (8%), including the month’s largest contract for £220 million to build a distribution centre in Sutton Coldfield, on the outskirts of Birmingham.

The number of tender opportunities was slightly higher than the previous month but remained 43% below the monthly average for the past year.