Continuing the recent trend, it remained a mixed quarter for firms in the construction supply chain at the end of 2024. In the final three months of the year, construction product manufacturers reported a third quarter of growth in sales volumes, whilst civil engineering contractors reported an increase in workloads, marking the seventeenth quarter of growth.

• Infrastructure was the sole sector of growth in chartered surveyors’ workloads during the quarter too, with a marginally negative net balance overall led by weakness in new housing – both private and public.
• Most downbeat during Q4 were the results from the FMB’s survey of SME contractors, who reported not only a broad fall in workloads, but an equally broad decline in new enquiries as well as a decrease in employment over the period.
• Official data on construction has also presented a mixed picture, with total construction output in Q4 rising 0.5% according to the ONS, as private housing, commercial and industrial activity staged the beginnings of their recovery.

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