A monthly snapshot of the UK construction industry covering contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualisations.
Previously available as a downloadable PDF, our Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot is now published directly on our website. This change makes the report easier to access, share, and revisit — no downloads or subscriptions required.
Accessible anytime, the Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot offers a more seamless and interactive experience – keeping you closely connected to the insights that matter most.
The resilience of the industry meant that despite these challenges the total contract award value increased another 14% in 2025 reaching a promising £89bn.
However, this increase in contract awards is not reflected in official output values as projects struggle to get on site and complete after being awarded.
Commercial & Retail saw a healthy increase of 29% driven by a resilient office refurb sector with significant Grade A refurbishments like the £600m Euston Tower.
2025 saw growth across most regions, primarily driven by high value transport and utility orders, alongside urban regeneration in cities like Leeds and Manchester. Despite ongoing challenges like high costs and planning delays there are signs that private investors are committing to signing off on new contracts. How quickly these can translate to activity on the ground in 2026 remains to be seen.
Infrastructure approvals rose a significant 108% to £42bn, dominated by the Energy sector. Seven of the eight Infrastructure projects above £1bn were in Energy.
Commercial & Retail saw a boom of 37% in 2025 due to intent for office developments and continued Data Centre projects to support the push for AI.
Medical & Healthcare performed poorly in 2025 due to delays in the New Hospital Programme with many schemes pushed back to the late 2020s.
Residential suffered its fourth consecutive fall for approval value with 2025 dipping to £36bn. The total number of approvals dipped 6% as well.
Industrial has dipped in approval value for its third consecutive year, dropping 4% in 2025 to £10bn. Much of this loss in value could be accounted for by the end of large warehouses projects and a shift in focus to smaller last mile warehousing.
The expansion at Leeds General Infirmary has helped the Medical & Healthcare sector grow 187% in 2025. However, delays to this project will mean this value is not actualised until the 2030s.
Continued government policy particularly around the energy sector has led to a 45% increase in infrastructure applications to an impressive £37bn.
A focus on RAAC repairs has influenced a 21% decline in the overall value of Education applications as priority moves away from new build developments.
With no answer to current viability issues the Residential sector remains flat, increasing only 5% in overall application value with a 13% drop in the number of applications.
A monthly snapshot of the UK construction industry covering contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualizations.
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We’ve made it easy to access recent insights. You can instantly download the last three editions of our Construction Industry Snapshot as a handy Excel file below.
Need more historical data? Our team can help you access older reports on request. Just reach out and let us know what you need, we’ll be happy to assist.
The Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot acts as a leading indicator of current and future activity in the construction industry. All values provided are at current prices, expressed in £bn unless stated otherwise and are non-seasonally adjusted.
The RSI is an index that measures current activity levels relative to
the last 5 years. It is presented on a scale of 0-100, where:
● 0 is no activity,
● 100 is the maximum possible activity, and
● 50 is the average level of activity.
The sectors that are included in the Construction Industry Monthly Snapshot are:
Our January edition of the snapshot features a review of the construction industry in 2024. This edition contains even more insight on the industry’s performance, including additional expert commentary, comprehensive data tables and concise visualisations.
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