Construction Industry Update – June 2023

Construction Output Slipped 0.6% in April

Construction output declined by 0.6% in April after two successive months of growth.

The fall was led by a 1% drop in new work, mainly from private housing new work, down 3% and commercial down 1.8%

Compared with the same month last year all new housing is now down 6.1%, while commercial build is up 7.5% and industrial up 13% to its highest level on record.

Diesel To Be Phased Off Site Under Government Backed Roadmap

Diesel will have disappeared from most construction sites by 2035, according to an industry-wide ‘route map’ supported by government.

Minister of state, Nusart Ghani, attended HS2’s oak common site to launch a Zero Diesel Sites Route Map, an industry-authored document pledging to support the rollout of hydrogen, electricity and other clean power sources for plant used around the country.

The route map was created by the Construction Leadership Council’s CO2nstruct Zero Programme.

Planning Crisis Bottlenecks Project Starts

A ‘crisis in recruitment’ within local planning authorities has created a bottleneck which is slowing down the progress of projects, according to Local Government Association (LGA)’s planning expert.

The head of the LGA’s Planning Advisory Service (PAS), Anna Rose, has said a ‘wages war’ is among the recruitment issues leaving planning departments woefully understaffed and unable to process applications quickly enough.

The comments come in the wake of new RIBA data which revealed the number of practices seeing projects scrapped due to planning delays has increased threefold compared to 2021.

Sources

Construction output slipped 0.6% in April | Construction Enquirer News

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/sustainability/diesel-to-be-phased-off-sites-under-government-backed-roadmap-06-06-2023/

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/buildings/planning-crisis-bottlenecks-project-starts-05-06-2023/