Top 150 Consultants survey shows biggest firms growing by 12% but many pessimistic for year ahead 

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The number of consultants who say they are worried about business prospects for the coming year is at its highest level since 2012, 黑洞社区鈥檚 Top 150 consultants survey has revealed.

For the first time since the year of the London Olympics, more firms said they felt pessimistic (25%) than optimistic (19%) about the upcoming 12 months.

The ongoing Brexit impasse, worries about a stalling economy and concerns over the UK鈥檚 pipeline of infrastructure work, with delays to HS2 increasing fears about other big-ticket schemes, have all combined to knock firms鈥� confidence.

September鈥檚 Construction Purchasing Managers鈥� Index showed business confidence was at its lowest level since the global financial crisis and construction output falling.

Gleeds chairman Richard Steer admitted: 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a very challenging year ahead. The current figures on the construction industry are as bad as they were in 2008/09.鈥�

And Patricia Moore, UK boss of Turner & Townsend, said the UK uncertainty is combining with global economic woes. 鈥淭he bigger play is the worldwide economy, with all the talk of trade wars. It鈥檚 the combination of this with UK instability which is sapping confidence.鈥�

The chairman of architect Stride Treglown, David Hunter, added: 鈥淲hen it comes to projects getting to planning and construction stages, they鈥檙e just not going at the speed they should. We鈥檙e constantly having to push start dates further back.鈥�

But the survey also revealed that the turnover of the industry鈥檚 biggest firms grew by 12% with the number of people they employ rising by 3.5% to around 75,000.

The biggest consultant remains Mott MacDonald which grew UK staff by just under 130 to more than 7,200 on the back of a 15% jump in UK fee income to 拢766m. The top five was rounded out by Aecom, Arup, T&T and Jacobs.

On average, the top 10 firms had chartered growth staff of just 1% but boosted their UK fee income by close to 14% over the period.

But the rise in staff numbers that was seen across the Top 150 firms last year is expected to slow down in the coming 12 months.

T&T鈥檚 Moore said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e not laying people off. It鈥檚 about being prudent in hiring and not making uncontrolled decisions to hire.鈥�

黑洞社区鈥檚 survey also revealed that Mott MacDonald occupied the top spot as the UK鈥檚 biggest project manager and engineer. Foster + Partners remains the country鈥檚 biggest architect followed by BDP and AHMM.