SCOTLAND secured the most building contract wins in the medical and health and education sectors last month, compared to the rest of the UK, according to a new analysis.
The latest edition of the Economic and Construction Market Review from construction industry analysts Barbour ABI, highlights the levels of construction contract values awarded across Britain.
It showed the value of all construction contracts awarded in June was £5.2 billion based on a three-month rolling average, an increase of 5.5% on May.
In the medical and health sector, total awards were valued at £69 million and Scotland took a share of 31.1% of all contracts, which compares to a figure of 4.5% a year ago.
Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital was the largest award for Scotland last month and was valued at £15m.
Education sector contracts in June were worth £388m, again on a three-month rolling average and, for the second month running, Scotland took the biggest share – 25.8% – which compares to a figure of just 3.9% in June 2018.
The largest education contract in Scotland last month, was the Maybole Community Campus at the Carrick Academy site in South Ayrshire, which was valued at £42m.
According to the report, the medium-term outlook for the construction sector remained subdued as current levels of business confidence and investment were relatively muted.
It said: “The current uncertainties within the UK economy and lead up to Brexit continue to dampen down expansion plans for some organisations.
“In addition, although construction new orders were positive in Q1 2019, they experienced significant decrease in 2018 which signals the potential for downturn in output for some sectors into the short-medium term.”
“The upturn in June has put a brake on the slow decline evident since January this year. However, this is unlikely to signal significant upturn for output. Instead this is likely to signal positive, if modest output growth in the short-medium term.”
Tom Hall, chief economist at Barbour ABI, added: “These figures indicate an increase in investment in these areas for Scotland in 2019 compared to 2018.
“The Scottish Government has promised to deliver 117 new schools by March 2020 for their Schools for the Future campaign.
“Although Scotland have topped the table for projects in the medical and health sector, we have recently seen a decline in contract awards in the sector across the UK.
“For the three months ending June 2019, total medical and health contract awards were valued at just £371m.
“This is 14.1% lower than the previous quarter and 37.6% lower than for the comparable quarter ending June 2018.”
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