New figures have revealed construction output in the UK fell by 1.7% between January and February.

The Office of National Statistics publication revealed despite output increasing 1.5% on a three-month by three-month basis, output fell over the month due to downward pressures from infrastructure work, which decreased by 7.3%.

New housing also contributed towards the decline, falling month-on-month by 2.6% in February.

However, repair and maintenance work grew by 1.2% month on month., 0.8% on year and 0.6% on a three-month by three-month basis.


Michael Thirkettle, Chief Executive of industry consultancy McBans Cooper, said the results are "more bad news" for Britain's construction industry.

"The big ticket issue remains the impact of Brexit: so far it's not led to the problems many feared when sterling took a hit following the Referendum result last summer, but the future looks much less rosy. This is because a significant proportion of UK construction workers are from the EU, as high as a quarter of the total in London.

"With a prospect of acrimonious divorce negotiations with the 27 EU countries taking place over the next two years and no promise of freedom of movement being retained, as was also signalled this week, many of these workers could decide to head home for good. This would be disastrous for UK projects, not least the government's ambitious housebuilding targets."

(LM)