South East: Construction sector confidence starts to rise

This quarter, workloads in the South East have seen an uptake with 9% more respondents seeing a rise in workloads rather than a fall. It should be noted, that while positive, this figure is still below pre-referendum results, when responses averaged a net balance of 36%. In Q4, private housing has begun to see growth in the region, with 9% more chartered surveyors reporting a rise. Growth has also been seen in the infrastructure sector, with 19% of respondents seeing a rise in workloads rather than a fall.

As a potential visible impact of policy change, it is interesting to note that since the start of 2019, workloads in public housing have also risen. An extra question was added to the survey this quarter to ascertain the impact that lifting the Housing Revenue Account borrowing cap has had on social housing at the national level. 16% more South East surveyors reported an increase rather than decrease in expectations for council house building workloads over the coming twelve months.

Activity in the South East’s private commercial sector has saw a small increase in Q4 with a net balance of 4% of respondents seeing a rise, up from 1% in Q3. However, workloads in private industrial fell further this quarter from a net balance of -7% to -8%.

With 45% of the responses to the latest survey coming in post the General Election result, the RICS market confidence indicator rose to 35% in Q4, (up from +12% in Q3) suggesting that the end to some uncertainty has renewed confidence in the market.

Even with the increase in workloads, respondents in the South East are still cautious over Brexit. Anecdotally respondents to the survey suggest this is one of the main reasons for holding off on investment decisions. 25% more surveyors will likely decrease investments on fixed assets including equipment and software in 2020, and 33% more intend to curtail workforce development and training.  However, when asked how business enquiries for new projects or contracts have fared in the past three months across the region, 15% more respondents reported an increase rather than a decrease.

Also, despite ongoing recruitment challenges, and with surveyors continuing to report full order books, a net balance of 46% of local respondents have increased their headcount in the past three months. 42% of respondents still anticipate skills shortages to impact growth across the sector for the future.

Jeffrey Matsu, RICS economist, commented: “While momentum across the industry has eased in recent years, surveyors continue to report full order books and constraints on capacity that suggest anything but a recession.

The General Election result last month provided a welcome relief to market confidence with the anticipation of additional fiscal spending to be announced at Spring Budget pushing year-ahead workload expectations higher. That said, the yet-to-be-known relationship with the EU has kept the economic outlook fragile which is affecting businesses intentions to invest.”