Architects’ confidence in future workloads has plunged by a record amount since the start of the coronavirus crisis began last month.

The RIBA’s Future Trends survey for March dropped by an unprecedented 33 points to -11. This is the steepest fall in confidence since the sentiment survey was launched in January 2009.

The nosedive comes immediately after a strong start to the year when confidence had rebounded sharply after months of Brexit uncertainty. Buoyed by the election, architects pushed the survey to record its biggest ever month-on-month increase in January, taking it to +17. It had got as low as -10 in October.

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