René Muschter
Research Expert für Internationale Länderdaten
Construction industry in the United Kingdom - statistics & facts
Despite the uncertain economic environment and the challenges that the industry is facing, the construction sector in the United Kingdom has continued growing in the past year. The gross value added of construction activities in the UK has been growing since the first quarter of 2025, although the fourth quarter saw a small decline compared to the previous quarter. There are several issues putting pressure on the construction sector, such as the ambitious housing construction goals from the government, the labor shortage, costs remaining high, and regulatory changes.
Is the construction industry still growing?
The construction output of the construction sector in the UK has continued increasing in the past years, with a growth rate of 0.2 percent in 2024 and 1.8 percent in 2025. However, that growth has been decelerating since 2021, when there was a strong recovery, growing by 12.6 percent. Figures on the residential segment also showed a positive outlook; the number of housing starts in the UK as a whole increased noticeably in the past year, with England driving most of that growth, while housing starts in Scotland and Wales were lower than in previous years. Other segments also show signs of growth, with the value of infrastructure and private commercial construction orders growing by about 1.5 billion British pounds in 2025. Both of those figures, housing starts and construction orders, show that the number of projects under construction in those segments is expected to grow.
Construction costs are still high
Despite those indicators showing positive trends in the residential, commercial, and infrastructure segments, certain issues will remain challenging for the construction industry in 2025. Although inflation has been slowing down in the past year, the price of most building materials continued growing in 2025, with the price of imported sawn or planed wood growing by 8.6 percent, that of paint by 6.5 percent, and that of a couple of other products by over four percent. Meanwhile, there were roughly 34,000 job vacancies in the construction sector in the UK, the lowest figure since 2020. According to industry professionals, financial constraints, planning, and regulation were a few of the other factors that were limiting the building activity in 2025.
Although the construction industry in the UK has some uncertain times ahead, public and private spending is expected to continue growing in 2026.
