{"id":536848,"date":"2026-01-28T14:16:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=536848"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:16:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:57","slug":"uk-construction-activity-december-2025-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/cn-intelligence\/uk-construction-activity-december-2025-offices-28-01-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"UK construction activity December 2025: Offices"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"everviz-AJBAp9Mwk\" class=\"everviz-AJBAp9Mwk\"><script src=\"https:\/\/app.everviz.com\/inject\/AJBAp9Mwk\/?v=25\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h3>Offices overview<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>161 per cent increase in project starts year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>49 per cent decrease in main contract awards from 2024<\/li>\n<li>60 per cent increase in detailed planning approvals compared to 2024<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Office starts experienced a strong year in 2025, having grown 32 per cent against the previous year to total \u00a39.055bn. Major project starts (\u00a3100m or more) grew 34 per cent, and underlying project starts (under \u00a3100m) grew 30 per cent. This growth was driven by an increase in new build and refurbishment projects. AI growth has also increased demand for data centres.<\/p>\n<p>The pipeline, on the other hand, has weakened. Main contract awards and detailed planning approvals both fell 5 per cent against 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Office planning approvals performed strongly in the three months to December, rising 317 per cent. Elsewhere, project-starts and main contract awards both declined on the period.<\/p>\n<h3>2026 outlook<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>13 per cent forecasted growth for project starts in 2026<\/li>\n<li>Advances in AI will likely continue boosting demand for data centres<\/li>\n<li>The Tech Prosperity Deal promises a \u00a330bn investment to create an AI \u201cgrowth zone\u201d in the North East<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Types of projects started<\/h3>\n<p>In line with the overall growth in the sector, all value bands experienced growth in project starts.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Project starts in the over \u00a3100m value band totalled \u00a34.201bn, having grown 34 per cent on a year ago<\/li>\n<li>The \u00a320m to \u00a350m value band grew 30 per cent year-on-year, totalling \u00a31.51bn<\/li>\n<li>The \u00a350m to \u00a3100m value band increased 30 per cent year-on-year, totalling \u00a31.249bn<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Regional<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Strong performance in project starts, with only two regions down against last year<\/li>\n<li>Most regions saw a decline in detailed planning approvals<\/li>\n<li>The East Midlands experienced strong growth in both project starts and planning approvals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>London had by far the highest share (63 per cent) of project starts during the year, thanks to a 57 per cent increase to total \u00a35.69bn. Totalling \u00a3847m, starts in the South East grew 32 per cent on 2024. Starts in the North West were 11 per cent up against the previous year to total \u00a3522m. In contrast, the East of England experienced a 47 per cent decline, totalling \u00a3627m.<\/p>\n<p>Wales led detailed planning approvals in the office sector, having jumped more than 10 times year-on-year to total \u00a35.078bn. Activity in the region was driven by the \u00a35bn\u00a0 data centre development in Bridgend. At \u00a31.594bn the South East increased 32 per cent against 2024 figures. London, on the other hand, fell 11 per cent against 2024 to total \u00a35.259bn, despite the \u00a32.5bn LON6, LON7 &amp; LON8 data centre development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Offices overview 161 per cent increase in project starts year-on-year 49 per cent decrease in main contract awards from 2024 60 per cent increase in detailed planning approvals compared to 2024 Office starts experienced a strong year in 2025, having grown 32 per cent against the previous year to total \u00a39.055bn. Major project starts (\u00a3100m &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74630,74654,74646],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cn-intelligence","category-offices","category-sector"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UK construction activity December 2025: Offices | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Offices overview 161 per cent increase in project starts year-on-year 49 per cent decrease in main contract awards from 2024 60 per cent increase in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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