It was starting to look as though confidence was growing as the year went on; from only 21% feeling more confident than the previous month back in January, to 27% in February, and jumping up to 50% in March.

It’s now taken a bit of a tumble, though fortunately not back to the same level as the start of the year; 41% reported feeling more confident compared to last month. Only 9%, though, reported feeling more confident than the same time last year.

“Overall spend is down,” says one design and build company. “Anyone in the middle of a construction project is being crucified by high inflation and so we have a noticed a marked reduction in budgets and/or major adjustments to projects.” Inflation remains at record levels in the UK; prices were 10.4% higher in February than in the same month last year.

Amidst public sector strikes, though, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is saying that it would be a “terrible mistake” to offer pay rises above inflation, telling the BBC that the government’s aim is to “put this inflation period behind us.” Its goal is to bring inflation to below 3% by the end of the year, but for some in the landscaping sector this will mean a difficult year.

Read the full report here.