- Prior 46.2
That's a bit of a bummer as construction activity declines at its fastest pace in over five years in October. There were steep reductions in housing and civil engineering activity, as firms cited a lack of new work to replace completed projects. S&P Global notes that:
"UK construction companies reported another challenging month in October as the prolonged weakening of order books so far in 2025 resulted in the fastest decline in business activity for over five years. Civil engineering and residential activity saw the fastest rates of contraction, while commercial building showed some resilience.
"Reduced workloads were again widely attributed to risk aversion and delayed decision-making among clients, which contributed to a slower-than-expected release of new projects. Subdued demand in the wake of heightened political and economic uncertainty also led to the steepest drop in input buying since May 2020.
"Meanwhile, some positive signals for the construction sector in October included a slowdown in cost inflation to its lowest for one year, rising subcontractor availability, and a sustained improvement in supplier performance.
"Looking ahead, business activity expectations for the coming 12 months remained much weaker than the long-run survey average, largely due to worries about fragile investment sentiment and weak sales pipelines. However, overall optimism levels edged up to the highest since July as the prospect of lower borrowing costs reportedly helped to boost demand projections."
