A monthly snapshot of the UK construction industry covering contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualisations.
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Residential recovered well from a disappointing August, rising to £2.6bn, the highest value in over 18 months. This value came from a good number of projects with the highest value project not exceeding £300m and with only 7 projects above £100m.
Hotel, Leisure & Sport had a particularly strong month, reaching £830m with over half of this value coming from the Therme Manchester Wellbeing Resort.
Industrial continued to rise to a promising £1.1bn, with the largest project being Industrial units at the former TATA Steel site with a value £170m.
Awards in London were subdued: down 63% from August and with Residential developments few and far between. Continued issues with site viability and mounting delays from the Building Safety Regulator appear to be having an impact. Only one project was above £100m this month. Outside of London areas such as Scotland and Yorkshire and The Humber saw increases in projects mostly centred on power generation and storage. The energy sector is expected to be one of the main drivers of opportunity in the next few years with major works around energy connections and transmission requirements the focus.
Continued awards included a £265m wind farm at Strathy South Forest and £435m Battery Energy Storage facility at Thorpe marsh Power Station. Despite a current lack of consumer confidence and a reluctance to invest, it was encouraging to see plans press ahead for the Therme Manchester Wellbeing Resort. The £450m leisure facility will be delivered by Sir Robert McAlpine and work will commence before the end of this year.
Hotel & Leisure saw the largest proportional value increase to £370m, with the largest project being the £100m Villa Park North Stand Extension.
Commercial & Retail had strong month after a poor August. The £140m Bastion House office development helped the sector reach £1.1bn in September.
Infrastructure approvals continued to be positive with Gatwick’s Northern Runway and the Morgan Offshore Wind Farm topping the projects, both at over £1bn in value.
Residential outlook improved in September reaching £3.7bn, the highest value since March this year. However, there were no housebuilding projects in the top 10 or above £100m. The North West had a much stronger month than average with an application value of £1.8bn. Much of this value came from Morgan Wind Farm and the Fallowfield Student Accommodation Redevelopment.
Commercial & Retail saw the largest proportional increase rising 115% to £1.2bn. Over £800m of this value comes from the Village of Cambois Data Centre Campus in the North East.
August was a strong month for Infrastructure applications but compared to an exceptional July applications dipped 63% to £3.55bn. The top application was for the £1bn Hawthorn Pit Green Energy Park in the North East.
Residential applications were flat in August but remained at a strong £3.2bn. The largest application was for 930 houses at Tickford Fields Farm in the South East. The North East had its best month in over 18 months reaching an application value of £2.2bn with large projects in Commercial & Retail and Infrastructure.
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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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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