-
Network Rail intense Surveying Commissioned by Network Rail the City Surveys Group determined the feasibility of the development of the Heathrow Stabling...
-
The City Surveys Group surveying team have been chosen by Network Rail to work on an investigation project of Disley...
-
We are pleased to announce that Dan Rogers has joined City Surveys Group as Technical Director. With over 25 years of...
-
1-year Extension of the NINIS Framework with Network Rail
-
The strategy is the flagship policy of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and its aim is to...
-
Rail services that were lost as a result of the infamous Beeching and British Rail (BR) cuts of the 1960s...
-
It was announced in the last week that Everton have signed an agreement to lease land on Bramley Moore Dock...
-
Northern Rail welcomed customers onto the first passenger service to cross Manchester’s Ordsall Chord on Sunday, 10th December. A limited number...
-
Cheshire East Council has announced its plans to launch a public consultation for its HS2 Masterplan Vision for Crewe by...
-
Listed by the World Conservation Union as the world's most invasive species, it is the scourge of railway workers, construction...
-
Historic England's At Risk List is a register of endangered historic properties released annually in October.
-
The North West's new £600 million toll bridge over the Mersey has opened with a bang. An impressive firework and...
-
During Network Rail’s (NR) next five-year funding period (Control Period 6), close to £48 billion is expected to be spent...
-
So it would seem it's official. Worries over Brexit have led to commercial construction clients turning their back on risk. The...
-
Croydon Council has approved plans to build what will become the UK’s second tallest building. It is said that the...
-
Last week London's Crossrail project reached a milestone, all the track having now been laid for £14.8billion Elizabeth Line, in...
-
The government is set for an uncomfortable few months amid a growing wave of protests against the recent announcement to...
-
The Grenfell Tower fire that killed at least eighty people in a West London tower block in June has had...
-
The procurement process for HS2's London Euston build and the Old Oak Common transport hub has officially commenced with the...
-
Last week, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram joined with leaders from Leeds, Newcastle and...
-
Planning permission has been granted by Liverpool City Council for two more residential tower blocks on the ambitious Liverpool Waters...
-
Economic prospects for UK construction industry growth have been given a gloomy forecast, with a warning of 'clear signs' that...
-
The Labour Party have criticised plans to scrap or downgrade rail electrification projects in Wales, the Midlands and the North,...
-
With Parliament officially dissolved today, MPs have received the green light to hit the campaign trail towards the General Election...
-
In a new report published by Property Partner this month, the scale of ‘ghost homes’ in the UK has been...
-
The preferred route for the construction of a second crossing of the Thames east of the Capital has been selected...
-
The monthly Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) was published last week, and with it signs of the long-anticipated post-Brexit...
-
When selecting engineering staff to work on your project, the temptation is to go with who you know and who...
-
Major road projects could go under the knife because David Cameron started them too soon. Highways England’s Road Investment Strategy...
-
Survey industry leaders have warned that loss of access to the EU single market has the potential to bring the...
-
Despite early predictions that construction work would be driven down by the 12% plunge in the pound since last year’s...
-
Construction on a £25 million conference centre in Blackpool is due to commence in the autumn. It is hoped the...
-
A public consultation is underway to examine Transport for London's (TfL) plans to extend the Bakerloo line in London. The updated...
-
This month Walsall Council and Highways England unveiled plans for a multi-million pound improvement project to the M6 motorway. The chosen...
-
Earlier this month, the government published a white paper outlining its plans to tackle the nationwide housing shortage. Accelerate residential...
-
There has been a flurry of international interest in the West Coast Partnership after a November 2018 date was set...
-
Land surveyors have a varied job description - from mapping sites for new residential, commercial, industrial and infrastructure developments, to...
-
The latest report of the Deloitte Real Estate Crane Survey saw UK regional cities break resurgence and development records -...
-
There have been calls for politicians and the energy industry to team up to ensure Wales has the right skills...
-
In a groundbreaking project for the UK, billions of detailed 3D laser scans have been made to create innovative computer-generated...
-
After decades of delay, a controversial tunnel proposal could reunite the Stonehenge landscape. The dividing road that passes the UNESCO world...
-
Our guide to topographical surveys is intended to give readers a broad introduction to the field and explain when, why...
-
In an industry survey released this month, contractors have shown confidence in the UK construction market with an 11-month high...
-
A Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) report released just before Christmas stressed the critical role construction plays in reversing the...
-
This week, Stansted Airport unveiled plans for a new arrivals terminal which is set to increase its capacity by up...
-
This week, the gargantuan MSS ‘Webster’, a bridge-building machine measuring 157 metres long by 8 metres high by 22 metres...
-
Laser scanning is a high-precision method of producing a virtual three-dimensional image of a surface and of items on that...
-
Plans for Manchester’s iconic and infamous city centre open space, Piccadilly Gardens, have come under scrutiny following a recent public...
-
This week the government published the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline, revealing more than £500bn in planned public and private...
-
Buckingham Palace made headlines in recent days with the news that it is to receive an estimated £370 million in...
-
Measured building surveys provide you with a full set of measurements of the key features of the inside of a...
-
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has announced plans to end the monopoly on repair and upgrade of British rail infrastructure. He believes...
-
The need for new rolling stock on the upcoming South Wales Metro franchise has been written into the contract on...
-
The government has announced plans to roll the West Coast Mainline together with new High Speed 2 rail services to...
-
This Sunday saw North East Wirral Atletico, a youth football team supported by City Surveys, mark 100 years since the battle...
-
Electrification of the Great Western line has been deferred indefinitely. The project to electrify the line between London to Cardiff...
-
A £7 million pilot scheme to trial congestion-cutting techniques at the Croft Interchange near Warrington gets underway in November 2016,...
-
Manchester residents and shoppers hoping to reach the city’s super-mall, the Trafford Centre, via public transport were given good news...
-
Essential rail renewal work on the Liverpool city centre underground sections of the Wirral line and the Mersey Tunnel will...
-
Following a cabinet meeting yesterday, the government has finally approved the construction of a third runway at Heathrow with the...
-
Global transportation specialist Alstom has announced the start of work on building its new rail training academy and technology centre...
-
Rail travellers who normally use the Wirral Loop Line are set to face six months of Mersey misery as the...
-
Our Key Accounts Director, Ian Johnson, presented this year's 'Rail Person of the Year' award to a colleague of Adam...
-
The North Wales and Mersey Dee All Party Parliamentary (APPG) has expressed strong support for a planned £1 billion of...
-
The Mersey Gateway project passed two important landmarks this week - firstly with the erection of the bridge’s tallest pylon...
-
Firm believers in keeping up with the latest developments in the rail industry as well keeping in touch with old friends,...
-
The saga of the much-maligned Garden Bridge project took another twist recently as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, ordered...
-
A new development in wireless technology may prevent future fatal incidents and near misses on rail crossings following research published...
-
If you like being outside and using logical mathematical solutions to solve large scale problems then a career in land...
-
In a surprising turn of events, the government has scrapped plans to launch a National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), favouring instead...
-
Simon Kirby, the man who moved from Network Rail to head of the construction arm of HS2, has announced his...
-
Stonehenge, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Colosseum, the Great Wall of China… as we look back in time certain...
-
The Minister in charge of the nation's railways, Rail Minister Paul Maynard, has publicly expressed his determination to fix, once...
-
As Londoners enjoy 24-hour access to the Tube, Scottish commuters are also reaping the benefits of a multi-million pound revamp...
-
Scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2017, the construction of the new Mersey Gateway project has taken another...
-
Berkeley, the UK's largest builder of luxury homes and a major force in the London homes market, has stated that Government...
-
From 12 September to 21 October the Severn Tunnel will be shut for work to enable Hitachi electric trains to...
-
Transport for London has announced that it will be take back on board railway maintenance work for the Jubilee, Piccadilly...
-
After a three-year wait, the first overnight London Underground services have finally begun, with tens of thousands of passengers making...
-
The awarding of up to £900 million worth of enabling contracts for HS2 will be delayed by two months, it...
-
The City Surveys Group are proud to be a major sponsor of the 2016 RailStaff Awards. One of the largest...
-
The government has called for opinions on the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in Spring 2017, but may not be...
-
A government consultation has set out plans for payments from the Shale Wealth Fund to go directly to local people...
-
The Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers' Index, the industry-standard report on construction activity nationwide, has recorded its second quarterly drop...
-
Reports from around the UK show an interruption to construction orders since the Brexit vote, which saw Britons vote to...
-
The government has delayed making their final decision regarding the construction of an additional nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in...
-
A planning application submitted by a Balfour Beatty Pinnacle Joint Venture has been approved by Woking Borough Council, giving the green light...
News & Press
The City Surveys Group - The UK's Measurement Specialists
Construction declines for two quarters
![]() |
Home » Published: 12th December 2017 This Article was Written by: Richard Furlong - City Surveys Group
|
Recent data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that construction output decreased by 0.9% in the third quarter (Q3) of this year.
For the first time since 2012, there have been two consecutive quarters of decline since Q3 2012.
With the trade gap in the construction industry shrinking by £700 million to £2.75 billion over the period. The sector is dangerously close to slipping into recession as the UK economy struggles to fire on all cylinders.
While the UK’s construction sector has enjoyed a strong run for almost a quarter of a century. This result is even worse than October’s original estimate of a 0.7% decline, which follows a 0.5% fall in output recorded in Q2 (April-June).
The decline has been attributed to a mixture of factors. In particular, repair and maintenance contracts have fallen by 1.4% and all new work has fallen to 0.7%. Economists have pointed to a drop in demand for new commercial building work as one of the main reasons for the fall in new work contracts.
In monetary figures, construction output fell by £361 million in September. A £236 million decrease in private commercial new work and a fall of £165 million from total repairs and maintenance to housing.
Construction output peaked in January 2017 and during this period output reached a level that was 29% higher than the lowest point in recent times (January 2013). Despite continuing to fall in September 2017, construction output remained 25.7% above the January 2013 figures.
On a more positive note, new work in housing has seen the best results. With private housing growing to £138 million and public housing expanding by £65 million. With the UK facing a critical housing shortage this is well short of where it needs to be but shows some light at the end of the tunnel.
Senior economist at the Construction Products Association (CPA), Rebecca Larkin, said: “At a headline level, today’s data shouts ‘construction recession’, marked by two consecutive quarters of falling output. However, output remains at relatively high levels – 1.1% higher than a year ago and 7.1% higher than 2015 Q3.
“There is also a clear variation in performance by sector, as highlighted in the CPA’s forecasts. Private housing output rose 1.8% to a record high during the quarter, with demand and confidence sustained by the Help to Buy equity loan. The £10 billion extra funding for the policy announced last month will maintain impetus in house building, with greater certainty over affordable rent-setting also supporting building by housing associations.”
She conceded: “Nevertheless, areas of weakness include private commercial, where new orders have fallen for three quarters and signal a lack of offices and retail projects to replace those now coming to an end. This is echoed in the public non-housing sector, which is suffering from lower volumes of work on schools and a dearth of new large hospitals projects.”
IHS Markit’s Chief Business Economist, Chris Williamson, said the data pointed to a ‘multi-speed economy’. This is referring to the buoyant quarter experienced by both industrial production and manufacturing sectors in contrast to construction.
The industrial sector in particular is experiencing a period of sustained growth with figures showing a sixth consecutive month of growth. A phenomenon not experienced for 23 years.
He said: “According to data from the Office for National Statistics, both industrial production and manufacturing output surged 0.7% in September, notching up the best performance so far this year.
“The overall picture is therefore one of the economy continuing to show relatively resilient growth, albeit with an undercurrent of heightened uncertainty surrounding Brexit posing downside risks to economic activity in coming months, especially business investment.”
