The RIBA Future Trends Survey predicts that UK architects’ workloads are expected to decrease for the first time since 2012.

The fall in positivity occurred in the month after the UK referendum on EU membership, with the confidence of practices falling, anticipating negatives consequences if the UK were to actually leave the EU. The results of this and previous trend surveys are published here: RIBA

Though the figures provided in the study are generalised, they are useful as a comparison and show that the fall appears to be quite significant; with a balance figure of -7 in July, compared to the +22 shown in June. (Values given are the balance figure; the difference between the practices expecting more work and those expecting less.)

As these are overall values, across the country results have differed. For example, London has predicted a workload decrease, whilst Wales and the West returned a positive balance figure of +14.

Practices participating in the RIBA survey confirmed that the potential implications Brexit were the primary reason for the drop in confidence. However, RIBA Executive Director Members Adrian Dobson has cautioned against reading too far into these figures, saying;

“…the fall in our index reflects anxiety about the future impact of the decision rather than an immediate change in the workload pipeline. Only time will tell if this change in sentiment is an overreaction to political events.”

The staffing index has also fallen, but has not reached a negative value, with an overall drop from +14 to +4. So, although the workload may have fallen, practices are not expecting to downsize.

 Surprisingly, it was the largest practices who were the least confident in their potential staffing intake, at 0, whilst small practices were still intending a predicted value of +3. (Values given are the balance figure: the difference between practices expecting to employ more staff in the next three months and those expecting fewer.)