Civil and structural engineering firm BSP Consulting is reporting a major increase in inquiries about new housing developments – signalling what it believes is a significant upturn in private house building.
The Nottingham-based company has been approached to assist with the design of plans for more than 6,000 new private homes across the region and beyond since the start of 2015.
The proposed developments range from large-scale schemes featuring hundreds of houses to bespoke individual projects of ten or 20 homes.
The trend marks a 40% increase on the same period last year, said business development director Jef Todd.
“The demand for civil and structural engineering skills is very often a barometer of how trends are going in the construction sector, as we tend to get involved in the process at an early stage, and we have noticed a sharp increase in the number of inquiries we have received in our East Midlands offices for work connected to private housing developments,” said Jef.
“Since the start of this year, we have been approached to assist with proposals for 6,000 new private homes in areas from Lincolnshire in the east up to County Durham in the north and down to Northamptonshire. Some are being planned and built by multi-national developers, while others are due to be constructed by smaller companies.
“There is a recognised shortage of housing and the trend that we are experiencing is not only welcome news for the construction sector generally, it is also good news for those individuals and families who are looking for private homes to buy.”
BSP Consulting, which is based at Oxford Street, Nottingham, and also has offices at Pride Park, Derby, De Montfort Street, Leicester, and Solly Street, Sheffield, provides civil, structural, traffic, transportation, geotechnical and environmental engineering services across the construction industry in all sectors.
Its pre-planning work includes site feasibility studies, flood risk assessments, transport and travel plans, design of infrastructure, such as roads and drainage, as well as design work on homes and buildings.
The company is involved in a number of key East Midlands housing schemes currently, including regeneration schemes Castleward in Derby and Cotgrave Colliery in Nottinghamshire.
Earlier this month, data released by Barbour ABI showed that the number of contracts awarded for new build residential units has been strong so far in 2015, with the comparative figures for the first four months of this year showing a 32% rise from the corresponding months of 2014.
Barbour ABI is one of the chosen providers of construction data for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Government, and has a reputation for being a leading provider of construction intelligence services.
