The findings of a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) report has confounded hopes that public spending could help the building sector ride out the recession.
The report found maintenance and upgrade work on infrastructure has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade despite a mild uplift in housebuilding workloads, the start of work on Crossrail and the agreement to finance the M25 widening programme.
The number of surveyors reporting a fall in workloads was 34% greater than those noting an increase.
The Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association said the focus on headline-grabbing large schemes could squeeze out less prominent work.
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