Value of Government's construction pipeline falls by a third in six months

Construction accounts for the largest proportion of the £79 billion worth of contracts available through the Government's 18 industry-specific procurement 'pipelines'. However, the value of available construction work has fallen to £19.2bn from £30.3bn in November 2012, according to the figures.

Although the figures indicate that a number of opportunities available through the pipeline have been contracted since November, there will be no additional opportunities available until the Government updates its spending plans as part of the Spending Review on 26 June.

Last month, the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee labelled the Treasury's plans to encourage economic growth through investment in infrastructure as "unconvincing". The National Infrastructure Plan (NIP), which sets out priorities for investment as designated by Treasury unit Infrastructure UK, sets out projects expected to cost £310bn. However, the Government has admitted that most of this investment will need to come from the private sector.

Last week the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) called on the UK Government to bring the country's infrastructure "up to the standards of other developed economies". Research carried out by Cebr on behalf of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) (registration required) said that doing so could contribute £100bn to the economy annually by 2026. Having infrastructure which fell short of "typical developed economy standards" cost the UK £78bn annually between 2000 and 2010, according to Cebr's report.

"The UK has paid a high price for having infrastructure which has fallen short of our competitors," said Daniel Solomon of Cebr, the report's author. "If UK infrastructure were raised to the quality standard achieved by our international competitors, we estimate that this could add roughly £100bn to annual GDP by the mid-2020s."

The two bodies recommended that the Government establish a formal threshold for new infrastructure construction activity which should not fall below 0.8% of GDP. The Government should aim to spend at least 1% of GDP on new infrastructure construction activity over the coming five years in order to "stimulate growth and close the gap in the quality of UK infrastructure" when compared to other countries, Cebr said.