Britain’s top 24 universities are spending more than £9bn on construction work over the next four years, generating £44bn for the UK economy

Economic research carried out by BiGGAR Economics looked at planned spending by the 24 Russell Group Universities between 2012/13 and 2016/17. The amount they are building is on a similar scale to the amount spent on the 2012 Olympics or the government’s current railway investment programme.

The key findings of the report are that over a 25 year period capital investment by Russell Group universities
is expected to generate gross value added (GVA) with a current value of £44.3bn for the UK economy. This includes £8.2bn of short-term impacts relating to construction and fit-out, £10.1bn longer-term operational benefits and £26.0bn of wider catalytic impacts stimulated by activities carried out in the new facilities.

These projects are expected to support more than 98,500 UK jobs. This will include around 37,800 temporary jobs during the five-year construction period, around 45,000 permanent operational jobs and almost 15,700 permanent jobs supported by the wider catalytic impact of the activity undertaken in the new facilities. View the full article here.