UK Construction of new buildings down 10%

On the Stonebridge Park Estate Lovell’s have build 95 new homes to a high standard of workmanship in a short period of time – a fine achievement.

The government department for National Statistics says that construction in the UK is 10 % down from 2011:

The figures show In constant (2005) prices, non-seasonally adjusted, the total volume of construction output in July 2012 is estimated to have been 10.1 per cent lower than in July 2011.

Comparing the three months from May to July 2012 with the same three months one year ago (constant (2005) prices, non-seasonally adjusted) we see that:

    The volume of construction output decreased by 10.0 per cent. New work decreased by 14.2 per cent and repair & maintenance decreased by 1.2 per cent

Over the same period:

    The volume of new infrastructure work decreased by 23.9 per cent;

    New public housing decreased by 22.4 per cent; and new public other work (excluding infrastructure) decreased by 21.5 per cent;

    Three sectors showed positive growth; infrastructure repair & maintenance (3.5 per cent), private industrial new work (1.5 per cent) and private non-housing (excluding infrastructure) repair & maintenance (0.7 per cent)

As we do not have enough data to seasonally adjust the monthly data we focus in this release on the year-on-year changes as described above. However, it is perhaps worth noting that the volume of construction output non-seasonally adjusted, increased by 2.2 per cent between June and July 2012. This compares with falls between the two same months in 2010 and 2011 of 1.4 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively.

This month, we have also produced an ad hoc analysis of public and private housing work.

Users should also be aware that, in line with our usual revisions policy, later responses to the survey, as well as updated deflators and seasonal adjustment factors, have led to revisions for the previous 12 months. The largest revision in constant (2005) prices, seasonally adjusted terms was in quarter two 2012 where the estimate has been revised up from a decrease of 3.9 per cent to a decrease of 3.0 per cent. The estimated impact on quarter two 2012 GDP from this release of construction data is an upwards revision of 0.1 percentage points. As usual, construction data will continue to be subject to revisions due to late responses to the survey and revisions to seasonal adjustment factors.