The Builders' Conference has found that during the five weeks since the lockdown started, a total of 613 construction contracts have been awarded, which is a 22% reduction on the previous five-week period (789 contracts) and a 31% reduction on the same period last year (884 contracts).
The value of contracts record by the organisation during lockdown has actually increased, with a total of £10.4bn being awarded compared to £8.4bn in the five weeks prior to that. However, the numbers are distorted by a single £2.2bn railway contract that, according to the Builders’ Conference, has been awarded to BAM for an infrastructure project. It seems probable that that listing refers to BAM Nuttall joining the Eiffage Kier joint venture, along with Ferrovial Agroman, to form the EKFB JV, which has a £2.27bn contract to build an 80km section of HS2 between the Chilterns and Warwickshire (lots C2 and C3). However, BAM Nuttall only has 15% of the JV.
Even excluding this, however, the value of new contract awards seems to be remarkably unchanged during the lockdown.
See bclive.co.uk/data for details.
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