A monthly snapshot of the UK construction industry covering contract awards, planning approvals, and applications by sector, featuring expert commentary and detailed data visualisations.
Contract awards fell 13% in August to £5.1bn from July’s £5.9bn.
Despite several major Infrastructure schemes progressing, weaker activity across Commercial and Retail and other sectors resulted in a softer overall month.
Infrastructure remained the largest contributor to Award activity. Major schemes included the £265m Maple Lodge Sewage Treatment Works Capacity Upgrade and the £250m Haweswater Aqueduct Bowland Section, demonstrating the continued strength of AMP8 investment programmes.
Planning approvals eased back from July’s exceptionally strong £12.1bn to £10.9bn but remained comfortably above long-term averages.
Activity was led by major residential regeneration, student accommodation and mixed-use schemes.
Residential approvals dominated the market. The largest project was the £500m Brick Lane Mixed Use Development and Microbrewery in London, alongside the £200m Goods Yard Phase 1 residential scheme.
London remained the UK’s strongest approvals market and accounted for a significant share of overall activity.
Residential activity remained geographically diverse, with large projects appearing across the Midlands, Scotland, North East and South East.
Despite the monthly decline, approvals remain one of the strongest indicators of underlying market confidence.
Planning application value plummeted 42% to a devastating £3.4bn, the lowest value in recent history with all sectors falling.
The total volume of applications was only marginally down in comparison, suggesting a fall in large scale developments.
Commercial & Retail had the largest proportional dip, decreasing 66% to only £200m. The largest project was the £20m Boulton Moor – Retail Development.
Residential applications more than halved to £1.4bn, the lowest in recent history.
Infrastructure continued its decline from an equally poor June, value fell to £800m. The £300m Southampton 1GW Battery Energy Storage was the largest project this month, a far cry from the usual billion developments.
Applications in Scotland fell the most proportionally, 79% to £200m. A fall in large energy projects has left Scotland with little construction opportunity this month.
London saw a 72% fall in application value in July to £300m. Most worrying, and a sign of little investor confidence, there were no Commercial & Retail projects above £5m in London in June.
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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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