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Spring 2022 41 Large scale projects at the University of Portsmouth and a high school in Fife made for a good month for education projects with planning applications worth £500m approved. Planning applications are also holding up well with £9.5bn worth of projects proposed in January. e bulk of this is down to residential applications, which totalled £4.6bn but once again applications for renewable power facilities gave a boost to the applications in the infrastructure sector, with proposals for £1.9bn worth of projects lodged. A solar farm in Yorkshire with a value of £125m and a wind farm in Scotland valued at £120m are two notable examples. Chief Economist at Barbour ABI, Tom Hall, said: “ e planning environment continued to go from strength to strength in February as sentiment moved in line with the improving Covid-19 situation. Contract awards continued on their record run over the last 6 months or so, with the most impacted sector of hospitality and leisure starting to show signs of life. “ e race to renewable energy generation is also fuelling considerable growth in related infrastructure construction projects; we can be con dent that this is a trend that will continue for some time. “While the outlook is not uniform across industry sectors or across the country, the results from February are encouraging and give us con dence that 2022 should be a good year for the construction industry as these projects in the planning pipeline turn into output. e demand for new buildings and facilities along with the willingness to invest in such projects is a very positive sign. However there remain several risks that may disrupt the commercially sensitive sectors recoveries: a record tax burden, high debt and rising in ation for consumers, further Brexit-related trade barriers coming into force, and recent events in Ukraine causing further product shortages and in ation as well as increasing geopolitical instability.” S ince its launch in July 2021, Scotland’s public bodies and private sector construction businesses have welcomed the bene ts delivered from the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool. e pipeline has been refreshed and contains an expanded list of projects, with a value of £11bn, and the number of registered website users exceeds 600. Managed by infrastructure body the Scottish Futures Trust, the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool was one of the actions coming out of the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum’s Recovery Plan, published in October 2020 to support Scotland’s construction industry to rebuild better. By registering on the website, private sector businesses now have access to speci c details of over 1,500 future infrastructure projects that have been submitted by 45 Scottish public bodies. By providing greater transparency on future construction workload, the pipeline aims to help businesses plan better and maintain their investment in skills and future training needs. For the public sector, the pipeline encourages greater collaboration between public sector organisations through a greater understanding of their respective investment pipelines. Peter Reekie, Chief Executive of the Scottish Futures Trust and Chair of the Executive Group of the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum said: “ e work of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) in ensuring the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool remains current and relevant, and provides the construction sector with vital information to help them manage their businesses e ectively and plan for future work. “ is is the rst update since the tool’s launch last summer. e next update is planned for June 2022 where we anticipate continued support by public bodies submitting details of their infrastructure projects and increase the number of projects and awareness.” Stuart Parker, Managing Director of Morgan Sindall, Scotland, member of the Construction Scotland Industry Leadership Group and Chair of the Pipeline & Commercials sub-group, said: “ e tool has already provided invaluable insight for our business as we plan ahead, and we welcome the continuedmanagement by SFT and support by public bodies in providing their data. I would welcome public sector bodies whose projects are not included to engage with the Scottish Futures Trust and support this key initiative.” MOMENTUM BUILDS ON CONSTRUCTION PIPELINE DATABASE “Contract awards continued on their record run over the last six months or so, with the most impacted sector of hospitality and leisure starting to show signs of life.” Tom Hall, Chief Economist at Barbour ABI TomHall, Chief Economist at Barbour ABI.