{"id":533923,"date":"2025-12-03T12:17:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=533923"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:17:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:17:04","slug":"did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the last Budget to see how output has fluctuated and confidence dipped over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

The sector was already feeling the impact of last year\u2019s Budget, namely the \u00a325bn increase in employers\u2019 national insurance contributions and a rise in the national minimum wage. So the further increases announced for next year will be a big concern for employers. The 8.5 per cent rise in the minimum wage for workers aged 18 to 20 and the 6 per cent increase for 16 to 17-year-olds in particular are inflation-busting rises that could put off many firms from taking on apprentices.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, this tax raising budget provides little in the way of a narrative of stability\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This comes at a time when the construction workforce has plunged to its lowest proportion of total UK employment in more than 100 years, according to research published this week by the Centre for Social Justice, and while the funding the chancellor announced to make training for under-25 apprenticeships free for SMEs is welcome, these broader wage increases will pose a threat to recruiting the necessary workforce numbers needed meet the demand to build 1.5 million homes. We would have liked to have seen additional funding go into shortage trades, and further flexibility in the apprenticeships levy.<\/p>\n

Overall, this tax raising budget provides little in the way of a narrative of stability. With income tax thresholds being frozen for three years longer than planned, more people will feel the impact of fiscal drag. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, this means personal incomes are expected to grow by an average of just 0.25 per cent across the rest of the decade \u2013 not much cheer for those struggling to buy a property, which is bad news for stimulating demand in the sluggish housebuilding sector.<\/p>\n

And while those with homes valued at \u00a32m or more face a council tax surcharge, looking at reforming the lower-end council tax bands \u2013 where rates are still disproportionate \u2013 could have helped reduce the barrier to entry for those looking to gain a foot on the housing ladder and triggered more demand for homes.<\/p>\n

And what about net zero? Measures to stimulate the retrofit market were noticeable by their absence. We would have like to have seen retrofitting, rather than knock down and rebuild, encouraged by introducing new grants and tax breaks.<\/p>\n

Silver lining<\/h3>\n

So, was there any silver lining?<\/p>\n

The housebuilding sector will be relieved with the Treasury dropping plans \u2013 at least for the foreseeable future \u2013 to converge the two rates of landfill tax, and will welcome retention of the tax exemption for backfilling quarries to ensure that housebuilders and the construction sector continue to have access to a low-cost alternative to landfill.<\/p>\n

Further commitments to infrastructure projects, including the construction of hundreds of neighbourhood health centres, funded in part through a new public-private partnership model, plus \u00a313bn for the mayoral strategic authorities to fund regional projects, was a welcome boost.<\/p>\n

One plus point buried deep in the Red Book was that the government will strengthen HMRC\u2019s powers to tackle fraud within the Construction Industry Scheme, which will help protect legitimate contractors that are struggling due to the economic climate and being undercut by rogue operators. Also welcome was that the government will introduce regulations aimed at simplifying and improving the administration of the scheme.<\/p>\n

And, it may be in glass half full mode, but as Rachel Reeves syphons off more money from the economy, the flip side is that it could result in the Bank of England lowering interest rates, which could incentivise investors \u2013 many of whom are currently employing a wait-and-see approach \u2013 to take the plunge and borrow to commit to new projects.<\/p>\n

Overall, then, this was a Budget with a modicum of relief \u2013 and at least no nasty surprises as big as the one the chancellor got from the OBR releasing its economic forecast ahead of her speech.<\/p>\n

But there was little to excite construction, and enough to worry the industry. Stability still looks some way off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the last Budget to see how output has fluctuated and confidence dipped over the past 12 months. The sector was already feeling the impact of last year\u2019s Budget, namely the \u00a325bn increase …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":533928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[559,567],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-long-reads","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nDid the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving? | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Construction News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CN.community\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CN Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CNplus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CNplus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CN Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"CN Contributor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977\"},\"headline\":\"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Long reads\",\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\",\"name\":\"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving? | Construction News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977\"},\"description\":\"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Construction News\",\"description\":\"Read UK Construction Industry News, Analysis, Opinion and data\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977\",\"name\":\"CN Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4459a1787866960f6b7327ced9ef282b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85e855d414d90661e402540ea1fe31f5f326f533565d30a336e9e247b54c427e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85e855d414d90661e402540ea1fe31f5f326f533565d30a336e9e247b54c427e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CN Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/author\/web-team-test-cron\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving? | Construction News","description":"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?","og_description":"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/","og_site_name":"Construction News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CN.community","article_published_time":"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp","width":620,"height":414,"type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"CN Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CNplus","twitter_site":"@CNplus","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CN Contributor","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/"},"author":{"name":"CN Contributor","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977"},"headline":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?","datePublished":"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/"},"wordCount":695,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp","articleSection":["Long reads","Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/","url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/","name":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving? | Construction News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp","datePublished":"2025-12-03T12:17:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977"},"description":"Clive Docwra is managing director of McBains The construction sector wants stability. You only have to look back at various statistics published since the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/Clive-Docwra.webp","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/sections\/long-reads\/opinion\/did-the-budget-deliver-the-reassurance-that-construction-is-craving-03-12-2025\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Did the Budget deliver the reassurance that construction is craving?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/","name":"Construction News","description":"Read UK Construction Industry News, Analysis, Opinion and data","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ad76189c9e50639a826a2a1049dd4977","name":"CN Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4459a1787866960f6b7327ced9ef282b","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85e855d414d90661e402540ea1fe31f5f326f533565d30a336e9e247b54c427e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85e855d414d90661e402540ea1fe31f5f326f533565d30a336e9e247b54c427e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CN Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/author\/web-team-test-cron\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533938,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533923\/revisions\/533938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}