黑洞社区

One word stands out when you read down the list of clients awarding work in July: council.

It will come as no surprise, but the commercial sector only accounted for 7% of the overall 拢2.5bn work won last month.

Laing O鈥橰ourke topped the leader board with a 拢1.1bn 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future win from Barnsley council that obliterated the opposition. Its other big wins were in the health sector and included a 拢20m deal for Somerset primary care trust and a 拢100m contract for West Cumberland hospital.

So two years after the term 鈥渃redit crunch鈥� first entered popular vocabulary, the public sector is very much keeping the industry ticking. How long it will last and whether the private sector will have picked up by the time government work declines are separate matters.

It鈥檚 a question that has been exercising Morgan Sindall executive chairman John Morgan, among others. He believes it is the big unknown looming over the industry.

His company finished in second spot in July with 59 wins that included a 拢37.3m school in Liverpool and a 拢71.3m Airbus factory in Flintshire.

Carillion finished in third spot with deals that included the 拢98.7m Low Moss prison in Scotland.

The gap between Laing O鈥橰ourke and the rest is narrower when infrastructure work is included. Costain finished in second spot and continued its recent run of healthy contract wins with a 拢170m water deal and a 拢20m contract for the North Terminal interchange at Gatwick airport.

Wates finished in fourth place in the main list thanks to two housing wins for two different councils (there鈥檚 that word again). They were a 拢45m job in Woking and a 拢17.5m contract in Birmingham.

Balfour Beatty pulled even further ahead in the annual rolling leader board by finishing in fifth spot in July with a total haul of 55 wins worth 拢93.1m. Skanska is in second place over the last year 鈥� largely thanks to the 拢2.5bn M25 widening deal. New chief executive Mats Williamson will hope it鈥檚 a sign of things to come.