East of England leads UK construction spree

The East of England was responsible for 17 per cent of all UK construction contracts awarded in a building spree in November, new data confirms.

The figures, taken from Barbour ABIs latest Economic and Construction Market Review, highlight marked growth in the UKs industrial construction sector, with the value of projects totalling 587 million in November - an 83.5 per cent increase on the same month last year.

The value of education construction contracts in the East of England totalled circa 100m in November, accounting for 18.8 per cent of the overall contracts awarded for the sector - an increase of five per cent from the same month last year.

Education jobs included a new purpose-built building at West Herts Colleges Dacorum campus and the refurbishment of St Johns Church School in Peterborough, part of the Governments 2bn Priority Schools Building Programme.

Other key projects highlighted locally were Lawford Mead Primary, West Town Primary and Suffolk New Academy which all fall under the Priority School Building Programme.

A major contributor to the overall upsurge was the 40m redevelopment announced for The Welding Institutes Granta Park headquarters in Cambridge.

There was also a strong performance from residential, industrial and infrastructure sectors. The report revealed overall growth in the UK construction industry of 6.8 per cent from October to November - a 56.5 per cent increase on the value recorded in November 2012.

Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: The figures highlight strong performance in the education sector overall, but particularly in the East of England where this type of construction appears to be booming.

This is helped by the recent Autumn Statement in which the Government announced it will remove controls on the number of students who can attend higher education institutions in 2015-2016, creating an additional 30,000 student places at publicly-funded institutions in 2014-15.

It also committed an extra 40 million to deliver 20,000 apprenticeships in the next two years, offering a potential boost to the levels of output in the sector in the coming years.

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East of England leads UK construction spree