Built Environment Sector

It has been a tough year for the Built Environment Sector. The Construction Industry is traditionally one of the first to be affected by a recession and is often the hardest hit.

The economic slowdown has significantly affected demand for recruitment services from our customers, particularly in the buildings arena. Contract NFI was up 13% in H1 but down 22% in H2, ending down 6% for the year. Worst affected were permanent fees which saw the earliest sign of the slowdown, down 33% and 67% in H1 and H2 respectively, and down 50% overall for the year.

There appear to be some recent early signs private investment in large commercial building projects. Existing investment commitments are in place for the completion of the London 2012 Olympics infrastructure, and improvements across the rail network, although we will have to wait until 2010 for any increase in activity in the water industry.

As in the Engineering Sector, we have taken the opportunity during this slowdown to reassess our priorities, carrying out some changes to our structure to ensure we are in as strong a position as possible for when the market turns. New industry-focused departments have been created to ensure greater clarity for the clients and a more focused approach to major projects.

Significant investment in London Underground improvements and Crossrail, have presented an excellent opportunity for growth in the Rail industry. We have worked hard to position ourselves to supply TfL (including Metronet) and Tubelines, as well as the consultants and contractors involved with these projects.

The water area has entered a ‘lull’ as the AMP4 cycle of investment ends and AMP5 starts in April 2010. We are well positioned to benefit from any early investment and ramp-up in work as we have secured valuable PSL agreements with the main clients across the industry.

The buildings marketplace has been the worst hit area of the industry and yet also poses the greatest opportunity for recovery. Due to the number of redundancies in this sector, clients will certainly need to recruit to deal with any upturn in workload and we are closely monitoring investment programmes such as Building Schools for the Future (BSF), BAA, MoD and the Olympics.