The UK Government's Construction Pipeline – August 2015 – Summary

The Government's Construction Pipeline provides contractors, suppliers and investors with a long-term view of current and planned Government-led construction market activity. It comprises central Government construction data and other public sector national and regional data.

The current pipeline reflects 2,262 programmes and projects covering 16 sectors with a total value of approximately £119 billion. The pipeline includes many key priority investments including HS2; the new Highways Agency Road Investment Strategy; the second phase of the Priority Schools Building Programme and Nuclear Decommissioning projects.

There is a total decrease of 886 (28%) programmes and projects since the previous edition of the pipeline in December 2014 (from 3,148 to 2,262 in August 2015). This is clearly a very substantial decrease. This is due to potential projects being removed from the pipeline to avoid pre-empting decisions in the forthcoming Spending Review. There were also a number of projects and programmes that have completed since the December 2014 iteration and are no longer included in the data (such as the Decent Homes Backlog programme).

Projects deferred predominantly relate to Justice and MoD projects (860 projects) across South East, South West, North West and East Midlands regions (640 projects).

This analysis focuses on 5 high level regional categories (comprised of the 15 sub regions included in the pipeline) as follows:

• North: North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber;
• Midlands and East: West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England;
• South: South East, South West, and London;
• National Projects: England and UK; and
• Other Regions: Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Overseas.

By Sector

Transport (£59.8 billion¹) and Energy (£22.3 billion) projects and programmes dominate the pipeline, with nearly 70% of the allocated value being attributable to these sectors. The highest number of projects are in Defence, Justice and Police and make up 74% of the entire portfolio of pipeline projects, yet contribute only 10% of total pipeline value. The value of Transport projects included in this pipeline are higher than Energy because most energy infrastructure in the UK is delivered by the private sector, not directly by Government. The NIP 2014 captures the full spend on these projects.

By Construction Start Date

The pipeline is segmented by construction start dates of the underlying projects. 42.6% of the pipeline value (£50.6 billion) is represented by just 159 projects which are recorded as having commenced construction "Before 2015”. A further £50.6 billion (42.6%) relates to 319 projects where a start date has been indicated during or after 2015, or with various start dates. No start date has provided for 79% of the projects (1,784) relating to 15% of the pipeline value.

By Services Commencement Date

Analysis has been undertaken to determine the date services will commence on each project. 40% of the pipeline (£47.9 billion) is represented by 155 projects which are recorded as having commenced services before 2015. 95 of these projects are also included in the 159 projects stated as starting construction “before 2015” and relate predominantly to the 33 Nuclear Decommissioning Energy projects (£22.3 billion) and 38 Transport projects (£22.4 billion). 1,498 (66%) projects, but amounting to only 6% of the allocated pipeline value, are expected to commence service during the period 2015 – 2017. Of this 1,358 projects relate to MoD, Justice and Police Forces with a combined value of £3.4 billion.

1,The full value of HS2 is not included in this total. The value included in this pipeline for HS2 is the current provision in the 2013 Spending Review plus an allowance for rolling stock