Rider Levett Bucknall’s Tender Price Forecast (TPF) Q2 2021

The second quarter of 2021 is showing the continuation of workload trends identified in the first quarter, namely high levels of activity, running in parallel with the mass COVID-19 inoculation exercise nationwide and the downstream effects of materials importation delays and labour availability questions.

General Market Overview
Although Covid inoculation is proceeding rapidly, the complexity of the issues in construction remain a mixture of pandemic-related issues and wider economic and market considerations. Phased re-opening of the economy remains in progress. Other issues affecting the economy revolve around the end of the stamp duty holiday in July and the end of furlough in September. On top of all of that, government is committing to “Build Back Better”, with their publicised significant investment in infrastructure and skills being met with concerns that immigration policy may now stifle retention, let alone the expansion, of the skilled workforce.  Workplace constraints are set to remain for the foreseeable future, and although construction has dealt with them better than most other industries, they remain obstacles to normal operations and levels of profitability.

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