Introduction

The UK construction sector plays a key role in the UK economy, which comprises an ocean of products, services and technologies. These may vary in terms of their economic value they generate, reflecting differences in their use of particular factor of productions and the value they generate from them. In line with this the UK construction can be classified in, firstly construction contracting industry, then provision of construction related professional services and finally construction related to products and materials. This sector is also to be hold a considerable growth opportunities of the globalisation of the construction market which a forecast shows that it will grow by over 70% by 2025. The below mentioned coming paragraphs will elaborate more on the pros and cons of being globally competitive

Construction industry in the UK economy

The UK construction industry nowadays is one of the largest sectors, which has added £90 billion, to the UK economy and has created almost 10% of the UK employment. It also bares many factors that can affects demand, which one of them is globalisation. The construction industry in UK has a good position to take advantage of global market. The construction sector in UK is known for its services like architecture and development of advanced technologies used in construction such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and also it has a higher proportion of patents to construction. In 2011 UK has exported construction contracting to give a trade surplus of £590 million. One of the main strength of UK is at exporting architecture and quantity surveying services. In line with this the contracting industry form part of one of the largest sub-sector in the construction industry in the UK. This have been proven as it has accounted nearly 70% of the total value added generated by UK’s construction and around 70% in the job sector. In spite of that, the UK’s technologies capabilities in the construction export are mixed up across its sub-sectors. Although significantly smaller compared to others, construction products and services play an important key role in the well-being and generate economic profits, about £4.2 billion in gross value added in 2011. However UK this is not the case in UK’s trade performance in construction related products, which has, make a deficit of about £6.2 billion in 2012. The construction sector was not spared with the 2008’s recession. From 2007 to 2011 the construction sector has accounted a downfall of 2.2% of the UK’s GVA. But everything seems to start going on the track according to a survey done by ONS. The most recent Construction Product Association forecasts clearly indicate that a fall in construction output of 2.1% in 2013 because of the effects of cuts in public investment. The table below shows the output in the construction industry statics.

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UK construction in the global economy

It is also important to note that the UK construction industry has came across problems concerning global market during the economic downfall in 2008, in spite of this UK remains one of the largest construction contracting industry. The construction industry in the United Kingdom has face many drastic changes over the pass 5 years which include increasing of prices of raw materials, limited funding, government spending cuts, corporate failures and falling consumer spending coupled with new accounting standards and regulatory requirements. It has been predicted that global construction market will significantly rise by 4.3% per annum, from USD$8,663 billion in 2012 to USD$15,030 billion in 2025. There are several factors that can accentuate international development.