Who was right? Reflecting on our construction law 2025 predictions

2025 has been a pivotal year for the construction industry, marked by ongoing policy reform, continued pressure on costs, and evolving market conditions. Many of the challenges and opportunities we anticipated at the start of the year have now played out, offering valuable lessons for the sector.

As we reflect on the past year, our construction partners revisit the predictions they shared at the beginning of 2025, and if they were accurate, what surprised them, and what this means for the industry moving into 2026.

Sophie Thornley, Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Partner 

“At the start of the year, I predicted that 2025 would see a rising awareness and adoption of the private-sector Construction Playbook. It felt like the right moment: the industry was grappling with contractor insolvencies, a tough PI insurance market, and ever-increasing sustainability expectations. The Playbook’s focus on “non-negotiable priorities” and “drivers for success” seemed ready to gain real traction. But as the year unfolded, that prediction has not come to pass.

“Instead, the economic headwinds of 2024–25 (persistent inflationary pressures, higher financing costs, subdued development pipelines and continuing uncertainty in both labour and materials markets) created an environment in which many organisations reverted to caution rather than innovation. In a market defined by squeezed margins and reduced appetite for risk, the industry has not moved as quickly as hoped towards adopting Playbook-style principles. That doesn’t mean the Playbook lacks value. Far from it.

“Contractors, project managers and quantity surveyors continue to reference it, and its messages on openness, collaboration, sustainability and fair risk allocation remain as relevant (arguably more relevant) in a volatile market. What this year has shown is that meaningful behavioural change in construction requires stability, which is something the sector doesn’t appear to have yet regained.

“If there is a takeaway from this “missed prediction”, it’s that the Playbook’s principles still represent the direction the industry needs to move in. But progress may be slower and more incremental until confidence, pipeline and liquidity return.

“The hope remains the same: that as market conditions settle, the focus on trust, productivity and better ways of working will once again find its momentum.”

Stuart Wilson, Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Partner

“Insolvency rates in the construction industry remained high in 2025, accounting for a significant proportion of all insolvencies.  This was not a huge surprise given continued economic uncertainty, a lack of real growth in the housing sector (particularly in London) and delays in infrastructure investment.

 Investment in skills and training remains a concern given the number of experienced tradespeople that have retired from the workforce or will do so in the coming years.  There is still cause for optimism in 2026.  Agile and innovative businesses have the opportunity to increase their market share as their competitors disappear and the government still has infrastructure investment at the core of its strategy.  Our team has worked with a diverse range of fantastic clients in 2025 ranging from residential, hotels & leisure, care, commercial, retail and industrial and many of those clients are already lining up for a busy 2026.”