IN Brief:
- Cundall has made redundancies across its 1,300-strong workforce.
- The job losses are understood to be in the low single digits.
- The move comes as parts of the construction consultancy market face weaker workloads and tighter client spending.
Cundall has made a small number of redundancies as the consultancy adjusts operations to current project requirements and client workloads.
The job losses are understood to be in the low single digits across the company’s 1,300-strong workforce. The business has also moved some colleagues into growth sectors as part of the operational review.
Cundall said the decision was taken to keep the business healthy and stable for the future, with support being provided to affected colleagues. The consultancy also said it remained committed to existing projects and partners across its sectors and regions.
The move comes during a difficult period for parts of the UK construction market. Consultancy workloads are often affected before site activity, because delays in client approvals, planning, funding, building safety submissions, and procurement decisions first hit feasibility, design, engineering, and pre-construction teams.
Contractors tend to feel softer workload later in the cycle, when tenders fail to convert or projects expected to start on site remain in design or approval. Consultants see the slowdown sooner, particularly where clients are pausing schemes, reducing scope, or holding off on discretionary development.
The latest UK construction PMI showed activity falling to a six-year low, with housebuilding remaining the weakest segment and new orders, employment, and confidence declining in May. That backdrop has left professional services businesses reviewing staffing levels while moving people towards sectors with stronger capital programmes.
Healthcare, energy, defence, water, data centres, and some infrastructure work continue to generate demand for design, engineering, project controls, building services, and sustainability expertise. The difficulty for multidisciplinary consultancies is that stronger sectors do not always offset weaker conditions in commercial offices, private residential, or speculative development.
Skills are not always directly transferable either. A consultant facing weaker office development work cannot immediately redeploy every role into healthcare, energy, or regulated infrastructure. Sector-specific knowledge, client relationships, security requirements, design standards, and technical assurance all shape where teams can move.
Regulatory change is adding further pressure to design-stage workload. Building safety requirements, Gateway submissions, fire strategies, and coordinated technical evidence have increased the amount of work needed before higher-risk buildings can proceed. That creates demand for expertise, but it can also delay fee recovery and push clients to control spend until approvals are more certain.
Cost pressure remains another constraint. BCIS forecasts show building costs and tender prices continuing to rise to 2031, while financing constraints and tougher contract negotiations continue to affect delivery. When clients face higher borrowing costs and uncertain end values, consultant appointments can be stretched, reduced, or moved into later phases.
The result is a more selective consultancy market. Clients still need engineering, sustainability, fire, MEP, digital, and specialist design support, but they are becoming more cautious about when they commit and how far they progress schemes before financial close or regulatory certainty.
Cundall’s reductions appear limited in scale, but they sit within a wider adjustment across the professional services layer that supports construction before work reaches site. Public, regulated, and infrastructure-led work remains active, while several private building segments are moving more slowly.
That split is likely to shape staffing decisions across consultancies through the rest of the year. Businesses with exposure to durable capital programmes will be better placed, while those more dependent on discretionary private development may continue to adjust capacity as clients reassess pipelines.
