A monthly snapshot of the UK construction industry covering contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualisations.
Source: Barbour ABI, October 2026 data
Contract awards rose 4% in October to £6.4bn, slightly above the 2026 average.
Growth was led by Commercial & Retail and Education, while 130 projects were above £10m.
Commercial & Retail increased 66% to £1.27bn, its strongest month since February. Data centres drove much of this, with the £300m DV3 Data Centre in Scotland and the £285m CWL2 St Athan Data Centre Campus in Wales together worth almost half the sector total. The £220m Paddington Triangle over station development in London was also a standout.
Residential grew 16% to £1.96bn with 47 projects above £10m. The largest was the £180m Imperial Road supported living development in the South East, followed by the £132m St Marys Wharf mixed development in the same region.
October showed a market that is steady at the delivery end, with awards holding slightly above their 2026 average at £6.4bn. Approvals eased to their lowest level of the year, while September applications reached £7.9bn, boosted by a single major data centre in the South East.
Energy and data infrastructure continue to set the pace. Battery storage and solar schemes dominated the largest approvals, particularly in Scotland and the East Midlands, while two data centres moved to contract in Scotland and Wales. With another £2.3bn data centre campus entering planning, the sector looks set to remain a key source of large-scale work.
Residential activity was mixed. Approvals slowed to their lowest level since February, but awards grew for a third consecutive month, suggesting schemes consented earlier in the year are now progressing to site. Education also stood out, with awards reaching their highest value of 2026.
Medical & Healthcare remains the clear weak spot, with low values across applications, approvals and awards. Much of the wider market also continues to rely on a small number of very large projects, so monthly totals can move sharply with the timing of individual schemes.
The October budget had little to say about many of the major issues affecting the Construction sector. Departmental capital budgets face a 1% reduction over three years, diverting £3 billion away from standard infrastructure to defence spending. While defence construction (barracks, military housing) will rise, standard civil engineering pipelines are being squeezed.
Heading into the final months of the year, steady awards and a strong flow of energy approvals point to a reasonable pipeline of work. However, the softer approvals total is worth watching to see whether it reflects a temporary dip or a slower flow of consents into 2027.
Infrastructure rose 6% to £1.48bn and included the largest award of the month, the £302m Eccles Wastewater Treatment Works in the North West. Water and energy featured heavily, including the £72m Springfield Farm battery storage facility in Yorks & Humber and the £67m Budds Farm Wastewater Treatment Works upgrade.
Education climbed 68% to £800m, its highest value of 2026, with 18 projects above £10m. The £100m Beeslack Community High School in Scotland and the £80m Manchester Metropolitan University All Saints Transformation were the largest.
Industrial fell 67% to £430m following September’s Agratas Gigafactory award, with no project above £60m.
Medical & Healthcare rose 51% to £140m, led by the £20m Highcroft Hospital mental health facility in the West Midlands.
Hotel, Leisure & Sport dipped 29% to £340m, with the £50m Minecraft theme park at Chessington World of Adventures among the largest awards.
Approvals fell 8% in October to £9.0bn, the lowest monthly total of 2026.
Despite this, 17 projects were above £100m, up from 12 in September, with energy schemes making up a large share of the biggest approvals.
Residential remained the largest sector but fell 29% to £3.1bn, its lowest value since February. There were 61 projects above £10m, led by the £350m Albert Bridge House scheme of 800 flats, offices and a restaurant in the North West
Infrastructure rose 17% to £2.8bn, with nine projects above £100m. Battery storage and solar led the way, headed by the £650m Green Hill Solar Farm and Battery Storage project in the East Midlands, while four battery storage schemes in Scotland added a combined £570m.
Industrial grew 51% to £2.0bn, although almost half of this came from the £900m Dogger Bank D synchronous condenser facilities in the North East. The £136m London Cancer Hub and £126m Severn Road industrial units in Avonmouth were also among the largest approvals.
Commercial & Retail dipped 7% to £420m, its lowest value of 2026, with no project above £50m.
Education fell 40% to £360m and Hotel, Leisure & Sport dropped 46% to £360m, the latter its lowest month of the year.
Medical & Healthcare stayed subdued at £60m, with only one project above £10m, the £15m Claire House Children’s Hospice extension in the North West.
Scotland was the top region, almost doubling to £1.4bn on the back of its battery storage approvals. The North East rose more than fivefold to £1.15bn, its strongest month of 2026, thanks to Dogger Bank D. The West Midlands fell 59% to £220m, its lowest month of the year.
Applications totalled £7.9bn in September, with 104 projects above £10m and six above £100m.
The month was dominated by a single scheme, with almost 30% of all value coming from one data centre in the South East.
Commercial & Retail was the largest sector at £2.9bn, driven by the £2.3bn Manor Farm West 216MW Data Centre Campus in the South East. Outside of this, the sector had only six projects above £10m, the largest being the £90m Gateway South logistics building in the West Midlands.
Residential totalled £2.45bn with 57 projects above £10m but none above £100m. The largest was a £85m scheme of 482 houses at Ashby Road and Normandy Way in the East Midlands.
Infrastructure came in at £850m, led by the £300m Immingham 1GW Battery Storage Facility in Yorks & Humber and the £94m North Logiealmond Wind Farm in Scotland.
Industrial reached £620m, with the South East again leading the way through the £103m Graven Hill data centre campus and the £100m FedEx distribution facility in Milton Keynes.
Hotel, Leisure & Sport totalled £580m, with nearly half of this from the £275m BT Tower 400 bed hotel in London.
Education came in at £510m, boosted by the £135m Newport Knowledge Centre redevelopment in Wales.
Medical & Healthcare was the weakest sector at just £20m, with no project above £2m.
The South East was by far the top region at £3.4bn, accounting for 43% of all applications. The North East was the lowest at £110m, with only two projects above £10m.
*Planning Application data is subject to change post-publication due to the rigours within the verification process for newly submitted applications
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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 2025. 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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