Featured Sector: Community & Amenity

The community and amenity sector has suffered as local authorities and government departments have diverted capital spending away to more politically sensitive areas. The value of underlying project starts fell by 7% in 2014, and has continued to decline during the current year. The underlying value of work commencing in this sector has fallen by more than a quarter from a spike in project starts in 2011.

The construction and refurbishment of local government buildings and town halls have been impacted most by the cuts to public sector funding. The underlying value of starts in this category fell by 81% between 2011 and 2012 as the impact of budget austerity battered planned developments.

2013 saw a modest uplift in the sector, with starts rising by 7% against the previous year. These gains came as the types of work that led the decline during the previous year, local government offices and town halls, rebounded from 2012’s low levels. However after this temporary bounce in workloads, the health of work in this sector has continued to worsen. The beginning of 2015 failed to bring any improvement in activity; during the three months to January starts were down 22% on a year earlier.

One major scheme that has come to fruition is a £150 million ‘Super Prison’ in Wrexham. This started in late 2014, with construction due to complete in July 2017