In the latest Office for National Statistics construction output report, the three months September to November 2017 show a rise of 1.6%, year on year, with all new work up 4.3% but repair & maintenance down 3.2%.
Over the quarter, private housing was up 12.6% but infrastructure was down 6.1%.
Despite the overall fall in all work during November 2016, new housing continued to grow at an increasing overall rate of 1.2% in comparison with October 2016, representing the biggest increment since February 2016. This has resulted in housing output reaching an all-time high of £2,639m.
Rolling three-month on previous three-month and monthly all work, November 2016
Components of all work, November 2016
Redrow chief executive John Tutte commented: “It’s very encouraging to see that the strong and sustained upward trend in new housing culminated in an all-time record high in output levels in November. It is also encouraging that 190,000 homes were added to the UK’s overall housing stock last year, an annual increase off 11%. In my view this puts us on track to hit 200,000 additional homes in 2016/17, which hasn’t been achieved since 2008, but this is still below the levels needed to satisfy our growing population, with some commentators putting this figure as high as 300,000 homes per year.”
Shraga Stern, director of Decorean, said: “The figures show very little difference from a year ago, and after 12 months of political, and sometimes, economic turmoil, this shows that house-building is as important as ever. Encouragingly, the fact that new work in November increased, with new housing output continuing to grow, bodes well for 2017, and is something we, at Decorean, are continuing to see day to day.”
