{"id":536840,"date":"2026-01-28T14:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=536840"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:17:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:17:04","slug":"uk-construction-activity-december-2025-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/cn-intelligence\/uk-construction-activity-december-2025-housing-28-01-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"UK construction activity December 2025: Housing\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"everviz-YZGD-44kR\" class=\"everviz-YZGD-44kR\"><script src=\"https:\/\/app.everviz.com\/inject\/YZGD-44kR\/?v=30\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h3>Housing overview<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>3 per cent decrease in project starts year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>19 per cent decrease in main contract awards from 2024<\/li>\n<li>38 per cent decrease in detailed planning approvals compared to 2024<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Although the housing sector looked promising at the beginning of the year, unfortunately the recovery was short-lived, with the sector experiencing a decline against 2024. Housing took a hit after the increase in tax duty in April and continued to decline afterwards as high inflation delayed the lowering of interest rates.<\/p>\n<p>While there was a moderate increase in major projects (\u00a3100m or more), it didn\u2019t offset the overall decline of the sector. The pipeline also weakened, with contract awards and planning approvals both down year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p>Project starts declined 8 per cent against the preceding three months, while detailed planning approvals fell back 11 per cent. Elsewhere, main contract awards rose 53 per cent.<\/p>\n<h3>2026 outlook<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>6 per cent forecasted growth for private and social housing starts in 2026<\/li>\n<li>Interest rate cuts are expected to buoy market activity<\/li>\n<li>The Social and Affordable Homes Programme aims to increase supply of affordable housing starting from 2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Types of projects started<\/h3>\n<p>Sub-sector performance was weak, with only three categories up on 2024.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Private housing accounted for the largest share (48 per cent), having decreased 6 per cent year-on-year to total \u00a320.052bn<\/li>\n<li>Totalling \u00a35.594bn, social sector housing starting on site fell 14 per cent on a year ago<\/li>\n<li>Private apartments grew 15 per cent against the previous year, totalling \u00a39.761bn<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Regional<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Project starts had a mixed regional performance, with half of the regions down on a year ago<\/li>\n<li>Regional performance was weak for detailed planning approvals, with all regions down year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>The North East experienced strong growth in project starts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>London led residential project starts, despite a 12 per cent increase to total \u00a36.957bn. The South East also fell 17 per cent to total \u00a35.517bn. In contrast, the North West grew 15 per cent to total \u00a35.288bn. The East of England increased 10 per cent on a year ago to total \u00a34.036bn.<\/p>\n<p>London was also the most active region for detailed planning approvals, accounting for a 20 per cent share, despite having fallen 45 per cent year-on-year. The South East also decreased 14 per cent on a year ago to total \u00a37.204bn, an 18 per cent share of the sector. Accounting for an 11 per cent share at \u00a34.138bn, the South West slipped back 21 per cent on a year ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Housing overview 3 per cent decrease in project starts year-on-year 19 per cent decrease in main contract awards from 2024 38 per cent decrease in detailed planning approvals compared to 2024 Although the housing sector looked promising at the beginning of the year, unfortunately the recovery was short-lived, with the sector experiencing a decline against &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74630,74651,74646],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cn-intelligence","category-housing","category-sector"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is 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