Featured Sector: Education

Earlier firm growth in education starts during 2013 and the first half of last year has faltered in recent months. The flow of education project starts slipped back during the closing months of 2014 and has remained fragile during the first five months of 2015. Whilst education is a priority for all of the main political parties, pre-election uncertainties hung over the sector in the run-up to 7th May. 

This weakness in the run-up to the general election means that we expect a mild decline in underlying education starts this year, before a rebound in 2016. Universities in particular slammed on the brakes ahead of the result, amid concerns over Labour’s pledge to cap tuition fees at £6,000 pa.

However the longer term outlook for education work is positive in contrast to other publicly funded areas of construction. Rising pupil numbers are necessitating increased investment by local authorities to increase primary school capacity, with the major metropolitan areas seeing the greatest pressure on existing facilities.