Private commercial fuels growth in Yorkshire & Humber despite rise in skills shortages

Private commercial sector leads construction growth in Yorkshire & Humber despite rise in skill shortages, according to RICS UK Construction Market Survey Q4 2014

The report suggests construction workloads dipped in Yorkshire & Humber in the final quarter of 2014, but the private commercial sector saw the strongest growth, despite the shortage of bricklayers reaching a record high.

42% more chartered surveyors in Yorkshire & Humber reported that workloads in the construction sector had grown in Q4 2014, with 58% more respondents said that the private commercial sector was fuelling the greatest growth, followed by the private housing sector (43%).

Around 60% of chartered surveyors reported that material shortages, skill shortages and financial constraints were impeding further sector growth, whilst 52% more respondents in Yorkshire and Humber also reported a shortage of ‘other construction professionals’ (non-quantity surveyors or blue collar workers) – the second consecutive quarterly rise.

Despite these factors and anecdotal evidence that the upcoming election in May is creating industry uncertainty, confidence in Yorkshire & Humber remains firm with 72% more respondents expecting workloads to increase and 51% anticipating profit over the next 12 months to increase.

Chartered surveyors in the region anticipate growth in workloads of 3.4% in 2015, with jobs in the sector expected to rise by a further 3%.

Fred Slater of Yorkshire based Arcus Consulting said: “New projects and opportunities are on the increase but the fee levels that consultants - and perhaps contractors - are winning work at is still very competitive and we continue to find new work difficult to come by, especially when in competition.

“The main challenge is certainly skills availability, now that numerous people have left the industry, given the depth of the recent recession. The result is, individuals requesting very high rates of pay which cannot necessarily be accommodated within the winning fee bid or from a contractor’s perspective, the tender sum.”

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