The East Midlands consists of the following Counties: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire.

After a reduced flow of new work over 2008 and 2009, the East Midlands got off to strong start last year as the value of underlying starts on site grew by more than 50% over the first six months. Although starts slowed down in the final six months of 2010, they were still up 32% for the year. Indeed, all sectors showed increases in underlying starts in 2010 with the exception of a sharp 19% drop in infrastructure. Infrastructure starts have decreased every year from 2007.

Encouragingly, there was a marked turnaround in the value of underlying starts and detailed planning approvals in 2010. The increase centred upon industrial, office, health, community and amenity projects, and private housing. However, any health or community & amenity projects which have not already commenced on site may be at risk to cuts in public spending, limiting the feed through of projects from the planning stage.

Overall, we expect the sluggishness of the second half of 2010 and the first seven months of 2011 to turn around over the rest of this year. The private sector is expected to lead the way. On the other hand, social housing and education should see sharp declines owing to cuts spelled out in October’s Comprehensive Spending. A lack of large projects in civil engineering will be a further drag on the region.

Underlying value of construction projects starting on site. (Excludes individual projects of more than £100 million and framework agreements).

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