Britain’s construction sector has enjoyed its strongest pick-up in business since before the financial crisis plunged the industry deep intorecession, according to the latest in a string of upbeat economic reports.
House builders were at the forefront of the sector’s resurgence as they saw activity grow at the fastest pace for a decade last month, according to the Markit/CIPS UK Construction PMI.
Civil engineers and commercial construction firms also helped the sector claw back some of the ground lost during its slump and companies across the sector took on more staff as new work flowed in. The survey’s headline activity index rose more than expected to 62.6 after 59.4 in October. That marked the seventh month of growth and beat a forecast for a slowdown to 59 in a Reuters poll of economists.
“Construction activity continues to spring back to life during the final months of 2013,” said Tim Moore, senior economist at survey compilers Markit.
“That said, construction growth is still coming from a low base as output levels rebound from a deep and protracted double-dip recession that only really ended this summer.”
While economists and policymakers will want to see the survey’s rosy picture confirmed in official data in coming months, it is a welcome boost to chancellor George Osborne as he prepares to present his autumn statement plans for growth, spending and taxes on Thursday.
The construction report follows a much stronger than expected Markit survey on Monday from the manufacturing sector, which makes up around a tenth of the UK economy. That poll suggested new orders were growing at the fastest pace for 20 years and that manufacturers were creating 5,000 new jobs a month.
In the smaller construction sector, there were also multi-year highs for key measures. Output, employment and new work all rose at their fastest pace since 2007. Anecdotal evidence from the survey, which is sent to some 170 construction companies, suggested business was being helped by rising confidence in the economic outlook and improving credit conditions. Confidence among builders about the business outlook was the highest for four years.
