UK construction sector growth accelerated last month to its fastest pace since February, aided by buoyant housebuilding activity, a survey has shown.
The upbeat survey, published by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS), comes at a time when economic releases have been signalling a slowdown in overall growth of the UK economy.
A survey published by CIPS on Thursday signalled that the UK manufacturing sector had endured its weakest quarter in two years.
CIPS’s purchasing managers’ index for the UK construction sector, which measures activity, rose from 57.3 in August to 59.9 in September on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
This took it further above the level of 50 deemed to separate expansion from contraction, signalling the strongest growth in seven months.
CIPS highlighted the strength of housebuilding, noting it remained the best-performing construction sub-sector.
Growth of residential building activity picked up to its fastest pace in 12 months.
Expansion in the commercial property construction and civil engineering sub-sectors, the other two covered by CIPS’s survey, also accelerated between August and September.
And the rate of job creation in the UK construction sector picked up in September to its fastest pace in three months.
Employment in the construction sector has now grown for 28 consecutive months, according to CIPS.
And the survey showed that sub-contractor charges continued to rise sharply.
Tim Moore, senior economist at survey compiler Markit, said: “Construction firms enjoyed a strong finish to the third quarter of 2015, as a sustained rebound in new development projects continued to have an impact on the ground. Moreover, September data suggests that the UK construction sector is still experiencing its most intense cycle of job hiring for at least 15 years, and consequently skill shortages.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here