Construction strong despite residential lull
November 2019

The value of all construction contract awards in October was £4.9 billion based on a three-month rolling average, which is an increase of 4.1% on September, and an increase of 28.5% when compared with October 2018, according to the latest figures from industry analysts Barbour ABI. 

The residential sector accounted for 28% of all contract awards, closely followed by the industrial sector with a 22% share. The total contract awards value for the residential sector was £1.7 billion which is a decrease of 9.5% on September and is 12.5% lower than for October 2018. On the other hand, industrial contract awards values have increased by 39.9% on September with a total value of £735 million.

The number of contract awards increased by 22.4% in October to 864 which is also 4.0% higher than for October 2018. Although contract awards numbers have increased in October, they remain volatile with evidence of a downward trend for overall contract awards since January 2019. In the three-month period ending October 2019, the total value of contract awards was £14.5 billion, which is 14.0% lower than the previous quarter and 14.4% lower than for the comparable quarter ending October 2018.

Tom Hall, Chief Economist at Barbour ABI and AMA Research said, “The residential sector has experienced slightly slower activity throughout 2019, there has been a small pick up in London, but data shows that there is a cooling off in activity throughout the rest of the UK. The most recent help to buy data shows reduced volumes which would also support this view.” 

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