A sharp rise in productivity in UK construction sector is good news for SMEs in the supply chain, and the economy overall, as output surged over a four-month period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to new data analysis, the construction sector saw its fastest rise in output for four months during November, boosted by a rise in commercial work as the economic recovery led to new projects and infrastructure work.<\/p>\n
It was the sharpest increase in commercial activity since July as clients continued to ramp up business and a number of firms reported supplier delays continuing to ease.<\/p>\n
Delays at ports and lorry driver shortage easing<\/strong><\/p>\n Port delays were shorter and a lack of transport availability due to haulage driver shortages also eased, while firms noted an improvement in the availability of specific items, particularly timber.<\/p>\n According to the IHS Markit\/CIPS UK Construction index (PMI), the reading for the sector in November came in at 55.5, up from 54.6 in October, any score above 50 indicates growth.<\/p>\n In data collected between 12 and 29 September, the index has now posted above the 50 no-change value for 10 consecutive months and the latest reading pointed to the strongest rate of expansion since July.<\/p>\n Construction output in November was boosted by new business volumes, with that particular index hitting a three-month high.<\/p>\n Increasing demand leads to new enquiries<\/strong><\/p>\n A slight slowdown in house building was offset by a steeper rise in commercial construction, which stood at 56.5, amid a robust rise in demand for construction products and materials.<\/p>\n According to the data, civil engineering was the weakest performing area in November (53.9), although the latest rise in activity was the largest since August.<\/p>\n Increasing client demand led to increased numbers of new enquiries, although some firms suggested that supply constraints had a negative impact on confidence, the survey revealed.<\/p>\n Inflation has been a worry for months and rapid price inflation added to cost pressures, but the latest overall rise in operating expenses was the least marked for seven months.<\/p>\n New projects boost building activity<\/strong><\/p>\n Tim Moore, Director at IHS Markit, which compiles the survey said: “November data highlighted a welcome combination of faster output growth and softer price inflation across the UK construction sector.<\/p>\n \u201cCommercial building led the way as recovering economic conditions ushered in new projects, which helped compensate for the recent slowdown in house building.<\/p>\n \u201cMajor infrastructure work also boosted construction activity in November, as signalled by the fastest growth in the civil engineering category since August.<\/p>\n “Input price inflation remains extremely strong by any measure, but it has started to trend downwards after hitting multi-decade peaks this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n For help and advice on related matters please contact our expert team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A sharp rise in productivity in UK construction sector is good news for SMEs in the supply chain, and the economy overall, as output surged over a four-month period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,31,42,69],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4456,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4455\/revisions\/4456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}