Risks to BCIS forecasts from Covid-19

We are currently in a rapidly changing economic environment, principally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic, and the measures taken to combat it, will have a knock-on effect on the construction market.

The existing BCIS forecasts will be overtaken by these events. BCIS will update the forecasts as the situation becomes clearer, or in their usual cycle, to reflect the situation as it is at the time

BCIS has published an update on the quarterly briefing and the next Maintenance, cleaning and energy briefing is due in mid-April. The next edition of the BCIS Infrastructure Briefing (Civil Engineering Market Report) is not due for a couple of months.

In the meantime, risks to the forecast resulting from COVID-19 include:

• materials not being available as works and factories shut down
• materials unable to be delivered from abroad
• sites shutting down
• loss of capacity
• investors stop spending money
• public-sector resources earmarked for construction investment are diverted to deal with the crisis.