Barbour ABI Content Team 
Home improvement figures across Great Britain decreased in 2018 with the number of planning applications dropping by 2.8%. What drives households to spend on home improvement will vary over time, place to place, household to household. Many factors will influence decisions. Exploring these various factors reveals how the pattern of which households are most likely … Read more
The residential construction sector had a particularly positive February with £1.7 billion contracts awarded, which is an increase of 13.1% compared to January. Residential unit numbers also increased – up by 5.4% on January at 9,850 units. Following the residential sector in terms of contracts awarded was infrastructure with a 13.9% share and education with … Read more
We continue to see that the infrastructure sector remains open to considerable volatility in monthly contract award values. However, looking at the trend over the last two years, the sector remains relatively robust with contract awards consistently above the £500 million threshold. The latest edition of our Economic & Construction Market Review is now available … Read more
The January edition of our Economic & Construction Market Review has just published It shows that during 2018 the value of construction contract awards was £61.6 billion, a decrease of 13.1% on 2017. The number of contracts was also on a downwards trend with 10,352 awarded, a decline of 8.2% on 2017. In good news … Read more
House price growth is slowing which could have an impact on the speed of housing construction… Reading over the latest output figures from the Office for National Statistics it appears that construction continues to perform strongly in the first quarter of 2017. The industry grew by 0.2% in Q1 compared with the final quarter of … Read more
Private housebuilding is the fastest growing sector in construction but major investment is needed to solve the housing crisis… The long-awaited housing white paper was recently released and anyone hoping for a silver bullet remedy to the “housing crisis” was to be disappointed. I am being slightly facetious when I say that, since no single … Read more
Construction continues to be robust in the wake of the various economic shocks that occurred in the second half of the year. An industry that tends to be pro-cyclical and behaves in a similar manner to the wider economy remains stoically resilient. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, while construction … Read more
In contrast to the previous chancellor, Philip Hammond has ditched grandiose announcements and made some specific investment proposals that could make a real difference Today’s Autumn Statement was notable for its change in purpose from the previous chancellor. In recent times, the focus was on eradicating the deficit which was originally scheduled to happen in … Read more
The fall in the value of the pound is the most tangible effect of the outcome of the EU referendum If the party conference season is anything to go by, it looks like we are heading for a “hard Brexit” post-referendum, which conjures up images of watery porridge and stale toast as opposed to the … Read more
The reality is that, for now, nothing has changed in the UK economy Waiting for the Brexit effect is like waiting for the rapture. Some think it has already happened, some believe it is on its way and others think it is a fictitious phenomenon not substantiated by evidence. Whatever your viewpoint, at the moment, … Read more
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Place of registration: Barbour ABI Limited Company number: 13427982, Registered office: 5th Floor, 133 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7BX
