The total value of construction contract awards in January 2020, was £5.5 billion based on a three-month rolling average. This is an increase of 18.5% on December 2019 and is also 2.1% ahead of January 2019. In the three-month period ending January 2020, total construction contract awards were valued at £15.6 billion which is 7.1% higher than the previous quarter and is also 5.1% higher than the comparable quarter ending January 2019. In January the number of construction contract awards was 893 which is an increase of 95.4% on December 2019.
Project by Region
Regional analysis indicates that London maintained its leading position, accounting for 32.5% of all construction contract awards. With attributable share of 26.6%, Yorkshire & Humber was the second largest region in January. With the two leading regions accounting for 59.1% of all awards this month, the remaining regions all attracted significantly smaller individual share (all under 10%) with Scotland and the East of England vying for third place with respective share of 6.5% and 6.4% of construction contract awards.
The infrastructure sector accounted for the two largest contract awards this month with combined value of £3 billion. Within the sector, the largest contract award was the £2 billion Dogger Bank Creyke Beck 1.4GW Offshore Wind Farm by SSE Renewable Developments and Equinor ASA Limited with subcontractors including Fred Olsen Windcarrier, NKT and SeaRoc with Jones Brothers Ruthin named as civils and groundworks subcontractors. The second largest contract award was in London and was the £1 billion Silvertown Tunnel project for Transport for London to provide a new car crossing between Thamesmead and Beckton was awarded to the Riverlinx Consortium (Ferrovial, BAM Nuttall, Ways & Freytag Ingenierbau, Cintra and SK E&C). The 60-month project is due to be completed in Q1 2025. Also, in London, the third latest contract award in January was the £400 million 40 Leadenhall Gotham City office development in the City which will see Mace Limited provide a total of 84,630 sq m of new office space.
Types of Project
The largest sector this month was infrastructure with attributable share of 42.7% of awards with the residential sector in second place attracting share of 25.5%. Commercial & retail was the third largest in January attracting 12.5% of contract awards. As previously mentioned, largest infrastructure award this month was the Dogger Bank Creyke Beck 1.4GW Offshore Wind Farm which is due for final completion in January 2022. The largest residential award was the Germany Beck development of 667 residential units by Persimmon Homes at Fulford near York which is due for final completion in June 2027. The largest commercial & retail contract awards were the £400 million 40 Leadenhall Gotham City Office Development in the City of London which was awarded to Mace Limited and has a 44-month project timeline.
