Construction statistics, Great Britain: 2022

• The value of construction new work in current prices in Great Britain in 2022 increased 15.8% to a record high of £132,989 million; this was driven by growth in both private sector work of £15,003 million and in the public sector of £3,158 million.

• Construction new orders rose 11.4% in 2022 to £80,837 million, driven by private infrastructure, private commercial and other public non-housing; the only sector that decreased was private industrial.

• In the Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022, 374,332 Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered construction firms were operating in the construction industry across Great Britain, which is a 5.9% growth compared with 2021.

• The number of construction-related employees (excluding self-employment) in Great Britain increased 3.3% in 2022 compared with 2021, totalling at 1.4 million workers; the biggest contributor to the growth in 2022 was England with a growth of 3.5%, Wales and Scotland both increased by 2.0%.

• The construction industry saw a 59.4% annual increase in the number of recorded company insolvencies in 2022.

• The all-work construction Output Price Index saw strong annual price growth of 8.8% in December 2022.

This article focuses on short-term measures of output value in current prices, that is, the impact of price changes not removed. This is opposed to volume (the value of work deflated by measures of inflation), which is the lead measure in our Construction output in Great Britain bulletin.

Figure 1: Total new work construction output increased 15.8% in 2022, reaching a record high value of £132,989 million

Types of construction work, current prices, non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2010 to 2022

Total new work increased by £18,161 million in 2022, with growth in both private and public new work, which increased by 18.1% and 9.8%, respectively.

The main contributors to this growth were private new housing, private industrial new work, and public infrastructure new work, increasing 22.8%, 56.0% and 12.8%, respectively.

The only sector to decrease was public other new work which fell 1.8% (£184 million).

We publish construction new orders data quarterly, using data sourced from Barbour ABI, which provide an indication of current confidence and future health of the construction industry. Annual data are provided in our accompanying dataset.

Figure 2: Annual new orders rose 11.4% in 2022 to £80,837 million, its highest level on record

New orders value, current prices, non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2010 to 2022

Annual new orders in 2022 increased 11.4% to a record high value of £80,837 million. The main contributors were private infrastructure, private commercial, and other public non-housing, which increased 85.1%, 10.2% and 17.5% respectively. This was slightly offset by private industrial which decreased by 0.6%.

Figure 3: Electricity, roads and public agriculture, and miscellaneous were the main sectors contributing to the annual increase in new orders in 2022

Contributions to year-on-year growth by sector, current prices, non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2022

At a sub-sector level, infrastructure new orders were largely driven by new orders in electricity, which increased 226.8% between 2021 and 2022, to £6,380 million.

Our data include breakdowns on employment, trade, size, and number of firms, using our Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) data.

There can be lags in the removal of businesses from the IDBR because of economic, legal, and statistical processes and the data included in this release represent the period Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022.

These statistics are based on the location of construction firms on the IDBR. Construction firms may operate and employ people across wider geographical areas, not just in the region they are registered on the IDBR. The IDBR also classifies businesses based on their main economic activity, therefore some construction activity may be classified in other industries, and some non-construction activity may be classified in construction-based businesses.

Number of firms and employees

Figure 4: Based on the IDBR, approximately 3 in 10 construction firms and employees were concentrated around London and the South East of England

Proportion of total construction firms and employees in Great Britain, by ITL1 region of registration, classified as of Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022

Notes:

1. These data are point-in-time estimates classified in the Quarter 3 2022 on the IDBR.
2. Self-employment data are not included because they are unavailable at an ITL1 level.

Figure 5: In 2022, there was growth in both the number of firms in Great Britain (5.9%) and number of employees (3.3%)

Year-on-year growth in the total number of construction firms and employees, Great Britain, 2015 to 2022, classified as of Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022

Notes:

1. These data are point-in-time estimates classified in Quarter 3 2022 compared with Quarter 3 2021.
2. Self-employment data are not included because they are unavailable at an ITL1 level.

Firms

There were 374,332 Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered construction firms operating in the construction industry across Great Britain in 2022. The number of registered firms grew 5.9% in Quarter 3 2022 compared with Quarter 3 2021. This was the strongest growth since 2017 (6.2%).

England saw the largest increase, with 6.2% (19,584) more registered firms. Wales and Scotland increased 4.4% (614) and 3.6% (769), respectively.

Employees excluding self-employment

The number of construction-related employees (excluding self-employment) in Great Britain increased 3.3% in 2022 compared with 2021, totalling at 1.4 million workers. The biggest contributor to the growth in 2022 was England with a growth of 3.5%, while Wales and Scotland both increased by 2.0%. These data are sourced from IDBR estimates.

Employees and self-employment

Total employment (employees and self-employment) data from our Workforce jobs by region and industry dataset remained at 2.2 million workers in the construction industry throughout 2022. These data are different to the IDBR data and are unavailable at the level required to publish Tables 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.

Self-employment

There was an average of 674,000 self-employed construction workers in Great Britain in 2022. This a decrease of 24,000 (3.4%) compared with 2021, as shown in our Self-employment jobs by industry dataset, sourced from the Labour Force Survey. Despite this, the construction sector had the highest level of self-employed jobs across the whole economy (16.7%).

Self-employment remained concentrated in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007 divisions 41 and 43, the construction of buildings and specialised construction activities.

Insolvencies

Construction was the biggest contributor to total insolvencies across the overall economy in 2022, accounting for 18.8% (4,354) of total insolvencies. There were increases in both the number of insolvencies in construction, which was up 59.4% from 2021 (2,732 insolvencies in 2021), and its share of total insolvencies (18.4% in 2021).

For a full account of business death counts, see our Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics bulletin.

Figure 6: Construction saw a 59.3% increase in the number of company insolvencies in 2022

Number of insolvencies by industry, 2021 average = 100, non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2022

Figure 7: Although the construction sector contributed the highest of any industry at 18.8% of all insolvencies, construction had the fourth-largest proportion of insolvencies to number of firms

Number of insolvencies by industry as a proportion of number of firms, non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2022

Notes:

1. The "proportion of total industry" rates are calculated using two different company registers, the number of company insolvencies listed on the Companies House register over companies registered to the IDBR.

Figure 8: Electrical, plumbing, and other construction installation activities accounted for most construction company insolvencies in 2022

Number of construction insolvencies by three-digit SIC (2007), non-seasonally adjusted, Great Britain, 2022

Notes:

1. The construction industry is categorised as section F of the UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007.
2. The two-digit codes are defined as: 41 (construction of buildings), 42 (civil engineering), and 43 (specialised construction activities).
3. For the three-digit SIC codes please consult GOV.UK’s SIC guidance.

Our Construction Output Price Indices (OPIs) dataset provides our best estimate of inflation within the UK construction industry.

In the 12 months to December 2022, there was annual growth in all construction Output Prices Index of 8.8%.

At the lower level, repair and maintenance and new work output prices increased across the 12 months to December 2022 by 5.3% and 10.7%, respectively.

Construction output estimates

Construction output estimates are monthly estimates of the amount of output chargeable to customers for building and civil engineering work done in the relevant period, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT) and payments to subcontractors.

Construction Output Price Indices (OPIs)

The construction OPIs are compiled using input costs, which are material, labour, and plant, weighted together for a selection of types of construction projects, with a markup being applied to account for profit by the construction firm. The result is considered a proxy for output prices.

Inter-Departmental Business Register

The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) is a comprehensive list of UK businesses registered for VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) used by government for statistical purposes. The IDBR provides the main sampling frame for surveys of businesses carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other government departments. It is also an important data source for analysis of business activities.

The two main sources of input are VAT and PAYE records from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Additional information comes from Companies House, Dun and Bradstreet and the ONS business surveys.

New orders

The new orders data measure the value and volume of new orders of main contractors by type of work and region.

Seasonally adjusted estimates

Seasonally adjusted estimates are derived by estimating and removing calendar effects (for example, leap years such as 2020) and seasonal effects (for example, decreased activity at Christmas because of site shutdowns) from the non-seasonally adjusted estimates.

Value estimates

The value estimates reflect the total value of work that businesses have completed over a reference month. Value estimates are also referred to as the data in current prices.

Volume estimates

The volume estimates are calculated by taking the value estimates and adjusting to remove the impact of price changes. Where chain-linking is applied, volume estimates are referred to as chained volume measures.

This annual article brings together a range of statistics currently available on the construction industry from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other government departments.

The construction industry is categorised as section F of the Companies House UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007, which is defined as:

• division 41: Construction of buildings
• division 42: Civil engineering
• division 43: Specialised construction activities

All data published are in current prices and, unless otherwise stated, non-seasonally adjusted and correct at the time of release, however, are subject to revisions as per the respective revisions policy.

The following links provide the annual data sources published previously, externally, or elsewhere by the ONS:

• Average weekly earnings in Great Britain bulletin
• Building materials and components: monthly statistics
• Business demography, quarterly experimental statistics, UK bulletin
• Business insights and impact on the UK economy bulletin
• Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)
• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Business population estimates for the UK and regions 2022 statistics
• Department for Communities (Northern Ireland): Housing statistics
• Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Planning applications statistics
• Employees and self-employed by industry dataset
• Health and Safety Executive: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)
• House building data, UK article
• LABD: Labour disputes in the UK dataset
• Migrant labour force within the UK's construction industry article
• Non-financial business economy, UK and regional (Annual Business Survey) bulletin
• Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency: Construction output statistics
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): International comparisons statistics
• Regional economic activity by gross domestic product estimates bulletin
• The Insolvency Service: Insolvency Service Official Statistics
• UK business; activity, size and location bulletin
• Workforce jobs by region and industry dataset

Quality and methodology information (QMI)

• Construction output QMI (last revised 8 August 2019)
• Construction Output Price Indices (OPIs) QMI (last revised 10 May 2023)
• New orders in construction QMI (last revised 8 August 2019)
• UK business; activity, size and location QMI (last revised 27 September 2023)

Acknowledgements and authors

Authors involved in this article are:

• Alishia Addicoat
• Thomas Ryman
• Jess Gavin