Data

Sales of heavy-side construction materials have remained at what industry leaders have called “crisis levels” amid warnings that jobs and businesses are at risk. The Mineral Products Association (MPA) reported further declines in demand for ready-mixed concrete in its third-quarter data release, based on volumes sold by its members. Sales…

Three construction contractors earned more money from public-sector clients than any other firm in any other sector of the economy during the 2024/25 financial year, according to a new report. Procurement insights specialist Tussell’s eighth annual UK Strategic Suppliers report showed that tier ones Balfour Beatty (£3.1bn), Kier (£2.4bn) and…

Growth projections for the construction sector this year and next have halved amid concerns over potential tax rises in the upcoming Autumn Budget. Uncertainty about what the chancellor will announce on 26 November, in particular, has hit house purchases and home-improvement spending, as well as delayed investment decisions in the…

325 The number of construction firms that went bust in June, according to the government’s Insolvency Service. This was down 18.5 per cent on May’s 385 and a 19 per cent fall year on year. But Kelly Boorman, head of construction at consultancy RSM UK, said: “As construction activity ramps…

The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will clear its backlog of legacy gateway two building control applications, covering 22,000 new-build homes, by January, it said today. A total of 91 new build cases submitted under the BSR’s scrapped “franchised” multidisciplinary teams (MDT) model remain in the system, but most will be…

Workload growth across the UK’s civil engineering sector has slowed to its weakest level since the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) to call for renewed government action ahead of next month's Autumn Budget. The industry body reported that just 7 per cent of firms experienced workload…

Severe delays to a key safety approval process have stalled more than 150 high-rise residential construction projects across the UK, threatening Labour’s pledge to deliver 1.5 million homes, the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has warned. The bottleneck stems from the gateway two regulatory checkpoint introduced under the Building Safety Act…

Construction costs are forecast to rise by 15 per cent over the next five years with tender prices expected to climb 16 per cent over the same period, according to the latest predictions from the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS). The BCIS forecast, which runs to the third quarter (Q3)…

The UK construction industry has seen its slowest rate of decline in three months, according to the latest S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index. The headline PMI rose to 46.2 in September, up from 45.5 in August. Although this was still below the neutral 50 mark, S&P said the…

A fall in brick deliveries has raised fears of continued “weak” demand in the housebuilding sector. The latest building material statistics from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) shows that deliveries of bricks decreased by 5.2 per cent in August compared with August 2024. They also fell by 3.3…