The Office of National Statistics has reported that construction output fell sharply in April, the third month in a row it has done so. It’s likely that the heavy rain experienced in the last 16 weeks has been partly to blame, although new work also fell by 2.8%.
Seven out of the nine sectors saw a fall in output in April, especially private housing new work – down 4.4% -, and private housing repair and maintenance, which fell 2.5%.
Construction output is estimated to have decreased by 1.4% in volume terms in April 2024, with the monthly value in level terms at £14,940 million.
In the three months to April, output is estimated to have decreased by 2.2%; this came from decreases in both new work (2.8% fall), and repair and maintenance (1.4% fall) and is the sixth consecutive fall in the three-monthly series.
Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The NFB Manifesto, ‘Supporting Construction to Power Growth’, was written with the UK’s GDP struggles in mind. While growth of the service sector should be celebrated, we should be desperately worried about the persistent drop in construction output and fluctuation of output in production.”
Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy at the NFB, added: “When construction output drops, the economy suffers. This is because construction builds the roads and rail, premises for employers and investors, homes to tackle the cost of living crisis and everything else which enables growth in practice. High speed rail, airport expansion, heat pump installs, electrification of buildings, freight transport, mining for manufacturing, energy generation and much more is either stalled, or made unviable because of the broken, delay ridden planning process. Until the UK gets a government which puts growth above fear of planning reform backlash from the vocal minority, we will continue to see a stumbling economy which cannot meet its potential.”
Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
