黑洞社区

See 黑洞社区鈥檚 top 150 consultants - 101st-150th here. See 黑洞社区鈥檚 top 50 project managers here. For full tables, including 黑洞社区鈥檚 Top 150 Consultants, see tomorrow.

Three-quarters of the construction industry鈥檚 biggest consultants plan to hire more staff in the coming year, despite growing worries about big-ticket schemes being stalled and the unknown effects of Brexit.

黑洞社区鈥檚 latest annual survey of the top 150 architects, engineers, surveyors and project managers reveals that more than two-thirds of firms have grown overall staff numbers, with average headcount growth exceeding 7%.

And more than nine out of 10 firms improved the pay of their staff in the past year, as companies shrugged off concerns about falling workloads caused by the outcome of Brexit.

鈥淧eople thought 2018 was going to be the year it all turned, and it didn鈥檛鈥�

Andrew Henderson, Ramboll

Andrew Henderson, executive director for buildings at engineer Ramboll, which this year gained almost 100 chartered staff, putting the firm into the consultants鈥� top 10 for the first time, said: 鈥淧eople thought 2018 was going to be the year it all turned, and it didn鈥檛. We don鈥檛 see things changing at the moment and we鈥檙e going in to 2019 ready to face Brexit head on.鈥�

And James Clark, founding partner of 115-strong London-based quantity surveyor Core Five, says: 鈥淲e鈥檝e just had our best year to date.鈥�

Adrian O鈥橦ickey, senior partner at Ridge, said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e growing at a significant pace, so my focus is to maintain culture, quality of service delivery and keep growth sustainable.鈥�

But Core Five鈥檚 Clark said consultants were beginning to sense Brexit uncertainty: 鈥淭he market is at that point where it鈥檚 on the cusp of turning.鈥� 

He added: 鈥淭hese are uncertain times. With all of the political uncertainty, investment decisions get pegged back through caution. It鈥檚 not everybody, but there is a slight reluctance from clients to make decisions on projects.鈥�

A number of the biggest firms including Mott MacDonald and Arcadis have carried out Brexit contingency planning, while some smaller firms such as TowerEight are looking at opening an office in Europe once the UK leaves the EU.

Arcadis鈥� UK chief executive Mark Cowlard said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e spent a long time looking at what鈥檚 the risk in each sector and, vitally, how can we mitigate this by identifying opportunities. Our overseas resource centres give us resilience, as a lot of what we do can be done from anywhere in the world. My sense is that we will continue to grow next year, but at a slower rate.鈥�

Firms are also worried the government is taking its eye off the ball on pressing ahead with big-ticket projects, because it is bogged down with Brexit negotiations. 

David Barwell, UK chief executive of engineering giant Aecom, said: 鈥淕overnment is distracted [鈥� There is] uncertainty about the shape of government, which causes projects to be pushed out.鈥�

黑洞社区鈥檚 survey also revealed that the number of fee-earning technical staff in the top 150 firms has risen by 18% since 2017, and the number of chartered staff by 9%.