{"id":536860,"date":"2026-01-28T14:16:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=536860"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:16:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:16:49","slug":"uk-construction-activity-december-2025-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/cn-intelligence\/uk-construction-activity-december-2025-education-28-01-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"UK construction activity December 2025: Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"everviz-fk-yuVg2_\" class=\"everviz-fk-yuVg2_\"><script src=\"https:\/\/app.everviz.com\/inject\/fk-yuVg2_\/?v=21\" defer=\"defer\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h3>Education overview<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>26 per cent decline in project starts year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>28 per cent decline in main contract awards year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>29 per cent decline in detailed planning approvals to the year-on-year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The UK education construction sector experienced a downturn in 2025, with project starts, planning approvals, and contract awards all declining relative to 2024. Activity was held back by constrained public sector capital budgets, delays to funding allocations, and continued cost pressures, which collectively slowed the progression of new school, further education, and higher education schemes. A recovery is expected from 2026 as the school rebuilding programme kicks off.<\/p>\n<p>Education detailed planning approvals and main contract awards performed well during the three months to December, rising by 1 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Elsewhere, project-starts declined 34 per cent against the same period.<\/p>\n<h3>2026 outlook<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>15 per cent growth in education starts forecasted in 2026<\/li>\n<li>School rebuilding programme set to lift sector activity from 2026<\/li>\n<li>The \u00a3120m New Hazlehead Academy Campus is set to commence in 2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Types of projects started<\/h3>\n<p>Project-starts in the education sector experienced a poor performance, with all segments declining against the previous year.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Schools, at \u00a33.532bn, accounted for the largest share of starts (69 per cent) but declined 20 per cent year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>Universities, at \u00a3650m, accounted for 13 per cent of starts but declined 41 per cent year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>Colleges declined 41 per cent year-on-year to total \u00a3659m, accounting for a 13 per cent share<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Regional<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>London accounted for the largest share of project starts, but declined year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>Scotland accounted for the largest share of sector approvals, but declined year-on-year<\/li>\n<li>Northern Ireland experienced sharp growth in planning approvals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>London remained the most active region for project starts, with \u00a3736m in activity, accounting for 14 per cent of the total value. However, this represented a 12 per cent year-on-year decline. The East of England performed more strongly, with project starts rising 28 per cent year on year to \u00a3552m, representing 11 per cent of the total value.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland held the largest share of planning approvals at 19 per cent, but this fell 10 per cent compared with the previous year, bringing the total to \u00a3810m. In contrast, Northern Ireland bucked the national trend, with approvals surging 142 per cent year on year to \u00a3546m, accounting for 13 per cent of the total value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Education overview 26 per cent decline in project starts year-on-year 28 per cent decline in main contract awards year-on-year 29 per cent decline in detailed planning approvals to the year-on-year The UK education construction sector experienced a downturn in 2025, with project starts, planning approvals, and contract awards all declining relative to 2024. Activity was &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74630,74648,74646],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cn-intelligence","category-education","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: Education | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Education overview 26 per cent decline in project starts year-on-year 28 per cent decline in main contract awards year-on-year 29 per cent decline in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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