Private housebuilders support a recovery in construction ouput

November 9, 2018 / Isla MacFarlane
Private housebuilders support a recovery in construction ouput

Construction output has continued its recovery, according to the latest ONS data, thanks to gains in private housing offsetting a slowdown in other types of work.

Construction output continued to recover following a relatively weak start to the year, increasing by 2.1% in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2018; this follows a fall of 1.6% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018 and an increase of 0.8% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2018.

The 9.6% and 6.2% three-month on year growth in private housing new work and non-housing repair and maintenance for September 2018 more than outweighed the 11.3% and 5.3% falls in public other and private commercial new work respectively.

Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2018 was driven by all new work which increased by 2.8%, and repair and maintenance which increased by 1.0%.

Construction output increased by 1.7% between August and September 2018, this was driven by an increase in all new work which increased by 2.8%; this was partly offset by a fall of 0.3% in repair and maintenance.

The level of the all work series for September 2018 reached £13,995 million – a record high since the monthly records began in January 2010.

Construction output increased by £872 million in Quarter 3 2018 compared with Quarter 2 2018. The most notable contribution to growth came from private housing new work, which increased by £507 million between Quarter 2 2018 and Quarter 3 2018.

Compared with the previous month, construction output increased by £233 million in September 2018.

The most notable increases came from infrastructure and public housing new work, which increased by £125 million and £81 million respectively in September 2018.

In comparison with September 2017, construction output grew 3.0%. This month-on-year increase occurred primarily because of a 3.4% increase in all new work along with growth of 2.4% in repair and maintenance. The most notable contributions to month-on-year growth came from private housing new work and infrastructure which grew by 9.9% and 10.7% respectively.

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