New online tool flags up £8.5bn worth of work across Scotland

A new online tool has been launched to provide the construction industry with greater clarity and understanding of future public sector construction projects worth a combined £8.5bn to be delivered across Scotland. 

The Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool has been developed by infrastructure body the Scottish Futures Trust in partnership with the public sector together with representatives from the construction industry. 

The interactive tool has been created in response to actions coming from the Construction Industry Recovery Plan published in October 2020 by the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum. 

With a current value of just under £8.5bn, the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool has details of over 1,150 future public sector infrastructure projects and covers many sectors including education, health, housing and flood prevention.   

Of the 1,150 project opportunities, approximately 60% are below £2m in value, emphasising the focus on providing opportunities to SMEs. This will continue to grow as additional contracting authorities join the system going forward and will be updated every six months. 

By providing greater transparency on future workload, the pipeline aims help businesses plan better and maintain their investment in skills and future training needs. It also aims to encourage collaboration between public sector organisations through a greater understanding of their respective construction pipelines. 

The pipeline also seeks to provide a longer-term view on forecast investment and identifies construction projects up to 2028, with the majority of the forecast spend occurring before 2025. The types of construction projects include new build, refurbishments, maintenance works as well as road infrastructure. 

The Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool allows the user to simply and easily explore data held using various criteria that includes the chosen procurement route, the procuring authority, contract value and sector. 

Peter Reekie, chief executive of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) and chair of the executive group of the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum, said: “Providing businesses working in the construction sector with this detailed information creates greater confidence through improved project transparency.  As a result, it will allow businesses to invest correctly and recruit accordingly, as well as build stronger partnerships within supply chains. 

“Through being a key partner in the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum, SFT took responsibility to deliver the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool, one of the actions coming from the Construction Industry Recovery Plan which was published in October 2020 in response to Covid-19. Building the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool was met with strong levels of engagement across the whole of the public sector, which has been greatly appreciated, and we look forward to continuing to work with the sector on this leading-edge development.” 

Stuart Parker, member of the Construction Scotland industry leadership group and chair of its procurement sub-group, said: “The Construction Pipeline Forecast tool is a really exciting development for the industry, bringing together details of the upcoming opportunities in the sector in one user-friendly format. It will really help the industry to understand the direction of travel in social infrastructure, providing confidence to invest in the resources and skills needed to help the country rebuild better. The tool will help to provide visibility of opportunity to businesses of all sizes, but particularly SMEs throughout the supply chain.”