The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has published the results of the January 2014 Future Trends Survey.
The RIBA Future Trends Workload Index saw a significant increase, rising to +36 in January 2014 from +30 in December 2013.
The New Year has seen a further strengthening of confidence levels, which had been steadily rising throughout the second half of 2013. Only 8% of UK practices expect workloads to reduce over the next quarter and nearly half expect them to increase.
RIBA Director of Practice, Adrian Dobson said: “It’s heartening that all of the UK nations and regions are now returning very positive balance figures for future workload forecasts. The improvement in sentiment is clearly no longer restricted to London and the South, but is much more widespread.
“Current growth is largely being driven by a widespread strengthening of the private housing sector across the UK and a pick-up in commercial projects in London, the South of England, the Midlands and East Anglia.”
Small (1 – 10 staff), medium (10 – 50 staff) and large-sized practices (51+ staff) are all reporting very positive balance figures, suggesting that workload prospects are improving across the board.
With regard to actual work in progress, practices recorded an overall increase in workload of 6% on a year-on-year basis. This is the second successive quarter that an increase in aggregate workloads has been recorded.
All key sectors saw an improvement in confidence levels this month. The private housing sector workload forecast remains the most buoyant, increasing to +35 in January 2013 from +31 in December 2013. The commercial sector workload forecast rose to +15, up from +11 in December 2013. The community sector workload forecast also saw a solid increase to +10 in January 2014 from +4 in December 2013.
The public sector workload forecast stands at +4, perhaps indicating that whilst public sector activity remains depressed there is at least a return to some stability in the public sector pipeline.
The RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index was unchanged, at +6 in January 2014, with the majority of practices expecting their staffing levels to stay the same during the next quarter. Medium-sized practices (11 – 50 staff) remain the most optimistic this month about their ability to sustain higher staffing levels in the medium term, returning a balance figure of +21.
Although the RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index has been in positive territory for some time, this has not yet been reflected in an increase in actual staffing levels, which RIBA Chartered Practices report to be static on aggregate on a year-on-year basis.
In January 2014, the percentage of our respondents reporting that they had personally been under-employed in the last month increased by one point to 18%. This suggests that although the amount of spare capacity within the architects’ profession is gradually reducing, overall productivity remains below potential at present.
Dobson continued: “After a number of years of static salaries, for people with the right experience 2014 may well be a more positive year. Paul Chappell, of RIBA Appointments reports that he has noticed a very strong start to recruitment in 2014. This has resulted in an 89% increase in the number of architectural jobs advertised on RIBA Appointments during January compared to last year. In particular demand are experienced Part 2 Assistants and recently qualified Architects who have taken UK projects from start through to completion.”
Anecdotal commentary received continues to paint a picture of widespread pick up in the level of enquiries and new commissions, but in the context of a market which remains fiercely competitive with significant pressure on fee levels. However, there is some evidence of emerging inflation in tender prices received from contractors for building works.
