Survey reveals how the EU Referendum is impacting the Construction Industry

A special question was asked on the EU Referendum as part of the latest Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI survey and unsurprisingly it revealed uncertainty of the outcome of the forthcoming EU referendum is having a detrimental impact on the current business performance of around one-third of UK construction companies. 

When asked whether the issue of the UK’s potential exit from the European Union is currently having an impact on their business, some 30% of surveyed companies that answered the question commented on a ‘detrimental’ effect, while a further 5% indicated that the impact was ‘strongly detrimental’. Conversely, just 1% reported a ‘strongly beneficial’ effect.

Over half (55%) noted no significant impact, while one-in-eleven respondents were unsure whether ‘Brexit’ worries were a factor impacting on their business (9%).

Looking at the nature of the impact on construction firms, nearly one-third of respondents commented that Brexit ‘uncertainty’ was making it difficult to make business decisions (32%), with a similar proportion noting an adverse impact on their sales (around 34% of construction firms indicated a detrimental impact in this area).

Only a small minority (16%) of construction companies reported that costs were also being adversely affected by the EU referendum uncertainty, while around one-in-four (26%) commented on a detrimental impact on profits. Investment and planning decisions were similarly also hampered (26% of construction firms).

At the same time, the vast majority of the survey panel (73%) reported no significant effect emanating from uncertainty over ‘Brexit’ on their ability to hire suitable staff.
Data were collected between May 12th-27th.