According to the UK RICS Construction and Infrastructure Market Survey for Q2 2017, workloads have slowed across all construction industry sectors, with Brexit identified as the main cause of delayed investment.
Respondents reported that ongoing uncertainty regarding Brexit, combined with political turmoil as a result of the recent general election and hung parliament result, is negatively affecting investment decisions.
Other takeaways from the survey include significant easing in activity in private commercial and industrial sectors, despite a more positive impression in the Q1 survey. However, 29% of contributors report a continued rise in private housing activity and although total workload growth has stagnated it is still on the rise overall.
Infrastructure workloads remain similarly unchanged since the last quarter, with road, rail and energy still expected to see the strongest growth, and generally the expectations for the year ahead remain positive.
Many respondents appeared significantly less optimistic regarding profit margins, with some expecting further pressure on tender prices as profit margins shrink. Financial constraints have been cited as a key impediment to building activity, again attributed to political uncertainty and also difficulties accessing bank finance and credit, cashflow and liquidity challenges.
In these uncertain times, construction accounting software not only allows you to adapt to and absorb sudden changes in workloads and margins, but also enables forward planning and avoidance of such pitfalls.
