The Survey, carried out in December 2009, shows that despite commitments made at European and national level to invest in the construction sector, expenditure by the public sector in buildings is expected to fall significantly.

According to the ACE’s Survey, architects are now more pessimistic about an upturn in work from the Public Sector than at any other time during 2009. This indicates that public authorities do not seem to be abiding by their commitments to increase spending in the renovation and/or construction of buildings in order to help the European economy out of the current economic crisis. In fact only 16% of architects expect to see an increase in work from the public sector down from 26% in September 2009. Notably this is in contradiction with the European Economic Recovery Plan adopted at the end of 2008. Moreover it is also not coherent with the affirmed priority given to emphasis in this sector in the fight against Climate Change.
The recent Survey, the fourth carried out by the ACE during 2009, shows that, as feared in October 2009, the architectural profession may yet have to face its darkest hour.

For full information on the survey please contact Adrian Joyce, Director: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
To download a presentation of the results of the survey go to:
http://www.ace-cae.org/docs/aceinfo/overview/Fourth_Econ_Survey_Dec_09.pdf