TWO new consultants have joined the Construction Management team at Russell Taylor Group as the North West construction industry begins to see a buoyant return to pre-Covid levels.

Mark Dawson and Molly Hills bring their sales and communications skills to the expanding division based at the company’s Burton Manor headquarters.

Construction Management Division’s manager Amanda Winder said: “The construction sector has shown amazing resilience throughout the pandemic and now we’re seeing major growth in the region in areas such as new build housing, build to rent and student accommodation projects.

“Mark and Molly will be adding to the expertise of the division in the recruitment of a white-collar construction workforce to fill the growing demand for project managers, construction managers, design management and commercial managers along with quantity surveyors and senior quantity surveyors.

“Their focus will be on channelling this regional growth into major economic recovery for the UK as a whole. There’s a great feeling of confidence in the air and they’ll be putting their passion and energy into providing talented, experienced people to get high value projects completed.”

In the North West, private housing and commercial works are currently the main drivers behind the region’s 4.5 per cent annual average growth in construction output, slightly above the UK forecast. Added to this is the building of new care homes as well as fit-outs at existing hospitals, retail outlets and schools.

Further good news is that in March this year monthly construction output increased by 1.7 per cent in volume terms. This is the fifth consecutive monthly growth and a record high in monthly level terms - a figure of £14,994 million - since monthly records began 12 years ago.

A skilled professional workforce to get these construction projects off the ground, oversee and bring them to successful completion will also be required as investment continues in infrastructure to upgrade road, rail and broadband networks and retrofit work to support the country’s acceleration of transmission to net zero carbon emissions. 

Amanda added: “This robust activity all adds up to an increasing demand for management and professional roles in the construction industry to see many vital projects through to fruition. Construction has proved to be a resilient sector over the past two years with an abundance of well-paid jobs for a range of skills and expertise.

“In particular demand currently are project management roles - for instance, we have had seven project manager vacancies nationally in one day alone. This is all down to a big surge in construction projects coming through planning and the industry returning to the levels experienced before the pandemic.

“And because construction is growing faster than some other industries, we also have a situation where there are plenty of opportunities here to attract people who might not even have previously considered a career in this sector.”