Despite the lack of overall growth though, surveyors are more optimistic about the outlook for the year ahead than had been seen previously, according to the report.

A net balance of 1% of survey respondents reported a rise in construction workloads in Scotland in the most recent quarter, which is consistent with a flat picture, but this was up from the -14% that was seen in Q2.

Looking at the subsectors, a net balance of respondents indicated that there were falls in activity in public housing (-12%), private commercial (-6%) and private industrial (-18%), whilst activity in private housing was seen to be broadly flat. Infrastructure and other public works were the only subsectors with positive net balances (net balances of 13% and 16% respectively), indicating a rise in activity in the quarter.

Looking ahead, a net balance of 12% of Scottish respondents expect overall workloads to rise over the next year, which is up from the 5% that was seen in Q2. This suggests a more optimistic sentiment for workloads in the 12 months ahead.

But Scottish surveyors are cautious about the outlook for profit margins. A net balance of -10% of respondents anticipate profit margins will fall over the next year, broadly in line with the balance seen in the previous survey.

Despite the overall flat picture regarding workloads, surveyors in Scotland are reporting increased skills shortages. 60% of survey respondents noted a shortage of quantity surveyors, up from 50% in the last survey, 40% reported a shortage of bricklayers, up from 37%, and 44% reported a shortage of other construction professionals, a rise from the 38% seen in the Q2 survey.

Alan Fairweather of Scottish Water said that there has been significant growth in all areas of infrastructure and that this was putting pressure on available skills.

Chris Marshall of Lundin Homes Ltd in Glenrothes added: “There is a serious problem in obtaining and retaining skilled workers in all sub-contractor trades and we see very little activity relating to apprenticeships.”

Robert Toomey, senior public affairs manager at RICS, Scotland, said: “Though extremely modest, it’s positive to see Scotland bucking the negative workload trend that can be seen across the UK, thanks to an uptick in infrastructure and other public works.

“Nevertheless, this belies the sharp fall in public housing activity and stagnant private housing delivery; areas we desperately need to see growth in if Scotland is going to effectively tackle the housing emergency.”