It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Joshua Toon, director at Armsons Barlow, which provides Project Management, Construction Cost Management/Quantity Surveying and Building Surveying Services from its base in Derby.
2022 was an interesting year for business, as the impact of COVID-19 finally lessened, only to be replaced by the pressures on the economy, with a cost-of-living crisis, rocketing energy bills and an impending recession.
Unsurprisingly, the industry has seen a relatively steady start to Q1 2023, with many institutional investors opting to take stock of the current market conditions before re-engaging with schemes. I predict scheme re-engagement will take place towards the latter end of Q2 2023, thus enabling investors to take a view on inflationary trends and the state of the market before making any medium to long term commitments.
As far as construction costs are concerned, I would expect material costs to finally stabilise this year and ‘construction related inflation’ to become less prominent, which should provide a boost for the sector.
A trend I expect to see this year, and beyond, is a larger drive for sustainable construction methods. Many businesses are now looking to reduce their carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly through adoption of sustainable construction techniques, where able to do so.
The increase in energy costs will almost certainly lead to a greater uptake in adoption of sustainable construction methods, and I predict this will filter through to all sectors. This, factored with the stabilisations of material costs, will hopefully ensure a wider adoption of sustainable construction techniques throughout the construction industry.
All in all, I think we have reason to be cautiously optimistic for 2023. The construction sector has faced economic challenges many times in the past and I’m confident the industry will be able to come out the other side of this ‘economic crisis’ in a healthy position.
