UK construction is bouncing back strongly with value of contract awards in July doubling on June to £6.3billion, and residential accounting for more than a quarter of the total, according to the latest Economic & Construction Market Review from Barbour ABI.
The number of awards has also increased in July to 860, an increase of 80.3% on June.
Every sector had at least 33% growth in July, compared to June, with up to 98% growth in certain sectors. The residential sector contract awards increased by 65.9% on June, Infrastructure climbed 75.4% and education contract awards increased by 43.5%.
London was the leading region in July accounting for 18.5% of awards. The second largest region was Scotland with attributable share of 17.1% and was followed by the South East with a 12.8% share of awards.
Tom Hall, Chief Economist at Barbour ABI and AMA Research said, “While the economy entered a recession, the construction industry has seen significant increases in activity over the last two months. This could potentially be due to the restarting of activity that had stalled in previous months. A strong planning pipeline could suggest the industry will continue to strengthen but at what rate remains to be seen.”
