Specialist manufacturers in the highways industry could be fighting for their survival as work is indefinitely postponed due to the state of the public sector finances, Highways understands.
An industry association raised fears that companies will go to the wall due to short-term thinking in the sector, saying that workloads have dropped in the third quarter by up to 60%.
A spokesperson from the Vehicle Restraint Manufacturing Association (VRMA) said the quarter 'had been a disaster for our members and we have no certainty about what will happen next in quarter four'.
He highlighted that members of the association had seen contracts being deferred or suspended but with no fixed dates for restarting.
'It is the most serious situation I have seen since 2008-2010. It is affecting both maintenance work and the new contracts. One member said the contracts they had on their books this quarter have all been suspended. We would like to get clarification on the pipeline.
'We are told things will be rolled forward but there is no clarification of what that means. Supposedly National Highways has secure funding. If there is a rescheduling it should affect the future plans, not the short-term work. You can't expect companies to turn the tap off, they will struggle to survive.'
National Highways is currently formalising the next road investment strategy (RIS 3 2025-2030). It has previously fallen behind on both RIS 2 and RIS 1. A large tranche of work from RIS 2 is likely to be moved over into the next road investment period.
'If they [National Highways] had delivered the work they promised there would not be a problem,' the VRMA spokesperson said.
