£2bn of house building contracts secured in the UK

Published by

Nicky Godding

Generic construction and house building picture

House building continues to prop up the construction industry with £2bn worth of new contracts in October.

According to the latest figures the entire value of this sector’s contract reached £5.4bn that month which is a 3.8% decrease compared to September.

It comes as the National House Builders Council has reported 43,578 new homes were registered between July and September this year which is the highest quarter since 2007.

The latest edition of the Economic and Construction Market Review from industry analysts Barbour ABI highlights levels of construction contract values awarded across Great Britain.

The largest project in October was the £350 million Keadby 2 Power Station, in North Lincolnshire being developed by SSE and Siemens.

London had the largest share of contracts awarded within the month, with a total of 17.2%, followed by the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside with 16.6% and 16.1% respectively.

Across the construction sector in October, medical and health projects reached £250 million, its best month statistically for more than two years and a 230 per cent increase on September.

More than 90 per cent of these projects were for public hospitals, such as the £90 million contract awarded to Laing O’Rourke to finish the Royal Liverpool Hospital redevelopment after the collapse of Carillion.

Infrastructure, traditionally one of the two largest sectors alongside residential, saw an increase in contract value by 6.9% taking its monthly total to £1.3bn. However commercial and retail, hotel, leisure and sport, industrial and education construction sectors all saw decreases across the month.

Michael Dall, Lead Economist at Barbour ABI, said: “There is no doubt that the strength of house building is substantially helping improve the overall figures for the construction industry.

“With a shortage of homes across Great Britain and an influx of buyers helped by schemes such as help-to-buy has propelled the sector and kept developers busy to keep up increasing expectations to build more homes.

“Nevertheless, as Brexit continues to be discussed and negotiated, the lack of clarity on the matter for the remaining sectors seems to have influenced the total amount and value of contracts.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.