Nearly £30b of construction projects are in the pipeline over the next three years according to a report from the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

The latest Construction Pipeline Analysis is for the first time covering the whole of the North West. The report makes interesting reading as it reveals not only the size of the pipeline, but also the numbers of trained employees, across a wide variety of trades, needed to complete the projects. 

The report covers construction projects in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

Setting the report in context, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Clive Memmott said: 

“Construction is a key part of our economy, whether building the homes we live in, the offices and factories where we work or the infrastructure that helps us to move between them. Since 2008, the outlook for the sector has been volatile but, along with the rest of the economy, it is now in better health. This is important as this sector is pivotal to the success of our regional economy.”

The report also revealed that labour demand for 2015 is 184,000 workers, the average labour demand for 2015-2018 is 122,000 workers, which compares well with the ONS baseline off 149,000 workers needed in 2013.

For the first time, the report is able to make useful comparisons between regions. The report shows a relatively small gap between the construction pipeline of the North West and that of the South East (which Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce also calculated in a recent report)

The construction industry contributes over £90 billion annually to the UK economy, which equates to 6.7% in value added. The value of the pipeline for the North West at £29.93 billion is only slightly less than the pipeline for the South East of the UK, which is £33 billion. 

The pipeline output of £29.93bn excludes numerous high value projects planned for the North West. If these were to be included in the analysis, the pipeline value for the North West would equal the pipeline value for the South East. The North West construction activity, as a total of UK gross value added, contributed 0.63% as an average over the last 15 years with a peak of 0.71% in 2004, approximately a tenth of the total contribution of the whole of the construction industry of the UK. 

Comparatively, construction in the South East has seen an average contribution of the Gross Value Added of the UK at 0.96%, approximately 15% of the total UK contributions across the 15 years with a peak of 1.046% in 2003. 

On average across the 15 years evaluated, the average contributions of North West construction is approximately one-third of a percent lower than that of South East construction. In general, both made greater contributions like for like on the previous year up until the peak of 2007 with a few exceptions. Since 2007 both have seen their shares of total GVA decline due to the impact of the recession on the construction industry.

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