Construction output in Great Britain: March 2021, new orders and Construction Output Price Indices, January to March 2021: March 2021

• Monthly construction output grew by 5.8% in March 2021 because of growth in both new work (6.7%) and repair and maintenance (4.4%).

• Construction output in March 2021 was 2.4% (£334 million) above the February 2020 pre-pandemic level; repair and maintenance work was 7.7% (£377 million) above this level while new work was 0.5% (£44 million) below.

• Quarterly construction output grew by 2.6% in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021 compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2020; this was driven by growth in both new work (2.8%) and repair and maintenance (2.2%).

• New orders increased by 12.2% (£1,227 million) in Quarter 1 2021 compared with Quarter 4 2020; this follows a fall of 7.8% (£848 million) in Quarter 4 2020 but was 13.3% lower than Quarter 1 2020.

• The annual rate of construction output price growth was 1.8% in March 2021.

• Following a quality assurance review of the Output in the construction industry: sub-national and sub-sector dataset, in part to reflect the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19), we have resumed publication of the dataset in this release; it contains quarterly sub-national and sub-sector data from Quarter 1 2020 to Quarter 1 2021 for the first time and revisions to previous quarters.

Monthly construction output grew by 5.8% in March 2021 compared with February 2021, the largest monthly growth since July 2020 when output grew by 17.8%. The level of construction output in March 2021 was £14,251 million – the highest since September 2019 when it was £14,381 million.

Following monthly growth in March 2021, the level of construction output recovered to 2.4% above its pre-pandemic February 2020 level.

While repair and maintenance was 7.7% above the February 2020 level, new work remained 0.5% below it, with a mixed profile of recovery at a type of work level.

Construction output grew 5.8% (£786 million) in March 2021 compared with February 2021 because of monthly growth in every sector except private industrial new work.

Anecdotal evidence received from survey returns for March 2021 suggested increased new work, delayed projects returning to sites, a general increase in demand and confidence across the industry, and unusually warm and dry weather (PDF, 59.47KB) were contributing factors to the large monthly increase in construction output.

New work grew by 6.7% (£563 million) in March 2021 compared with February 2021; private new housing was the largest driver of growth increasing by 9.4% (£272 million).

Repair and maintenance work grew by 4.4% (£222 million) in March 2021 because of increases in all repair and maintenance sectors – the largest contributor was a 7.7% (£144 million) growth in private housing.

Construction output grew by 2.6% (£1,039 million) in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2020 compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2020.

New work grew by 2.8% (£705 million) in Quarter 1 2021, largely because of infrastructure and private new housing, which grew by 4.3% (£242 million) and 2.7% (£230 million) respectively.

Repair and maintenance grew by 2.2% (£333 million), the largest contributor to which was growth of 3.2% (£236 million) in non-housing repair and maintenance.

Total construction new orders grew by 12.2% (£1,227 million) in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021 compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2020, following a 7.8% (£848 million) fall in Quarter 4 2020.

New housing orders grew by 8.6% (£300 million) in Quarter 1 2021, largely because of a 7.6% (£243 million) increase in private new housing.

All other work grew by 14.1% (£929 million), growth in private industrial and private commercial orders of 33.9% (£444 million) and 14.3% (£357 million) respectively. The growth in private industrial orders was largely because of warehouses, with private commercial growth largely because of entertainment orders.

Table 3 shows that despite strong quarter-on-quarter growth in new orders in Quarter 1 2021, they remained below their pre-pandemic level February 2020 using other growth measures. This is most notable in infrastructure, which had seen a large value of new orders in Quarter 1 2020 (Figure 7), which was the third highest since infrastructure records began in 1980.

Prices in the construction industry, as estimated by the Construction Output Price Index (OPI), rose by 1.8% in the 12-month period to March 2021.

All construction work

The annual and monthly rates of inflation for all construction were 1.8% and 0.0% respectively in March 2021. This is the first flat monthly growth in the series since August 2020 when growth was also flat (0.0%).

New work

The Construction OPI for new construction work grew by 2.1% in the year to March 2021. Prices rose for all new work sectors, the largest of which was housing, which rose by 2.8%, the highest in the 12-month series since October 2019 when it grew 3.0%.

Repair and maintenance

The Construction OPI for all repair and maintenance grew by 1.1% in the year to March 2021, with housing and non-housing repair and maintenance 1.0% and 1.2% 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.

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.

Volume estimates

The volume estimates are calculated by taking the value estimates and adjusting to remove the impact of price changes.

Construction output data collection

Our monthly Construction Output Survey measures output from the construction industry in Great Britain. The survey samples 8,000 businesses. All businesses employing over 100 or more people, or with an annual turnover of more than £60 million, receive an online questionnaire every month.

Data on new orders supplied by Barbour ABI are used to model the breakdown of the overall output figures for Great Britain into the lower level and regional data seen in Tables 1 and 2 of Construction output: sub-national and sub-sector. Following a quality assurance review of this dataset, we have resumed publication of it in today's release, containing data from Quarter 1 2020 to Quarter 1 2021 for the first time, and revisions to previous quarters.

Revisions to construction output data

Revisions in this release are a result of:

• late responses to survey returns replacing imputations, or revisions to original returns

• revisions to seasonal adjustment factors, which are re-estimated every month and reviewed annually

• revisions to the input series for the Construction Output Price Indices

For further information on the revisions profile please see the output in the construction industry revisions triangles published on a one-month and three-month growth basis.

Construction new orders data collection

New orders data are sourced from and validated by Barbour ABI and supplied to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) who further validate, process, and quality assure the data before new orders in the construction industry estimates are published.

Construction output price indices data collection

The Construction Output Price Indices (OPIs) provide our best estimates of inflation within the UK construction industry, providing aggregated measures for all new work, repair and maintenance and all construction work. Material costs are estimated using individual Producer Price Indices (PPIs), plant costs are measured using the Services Producer Price Index (SPPI) for construction plant hire, and labour costs are measured using the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) index for construction.

Quality and methodology

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in:

• Construction output QMI

• New orders in construction QMI

• Construction output price indices QMI

Data quality

These estimates are widely used by private and public sector institutions to assist in informed decision-making and policymaking. Construction output is an important economic indicator and is used in the compilation of the output measure of gross domestic product (GDP).

Further information on Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys is available.

Comparability

While monthly data are available for output in the construction industry back to January 2010, a longer time series back to 1997 can be obtained in the monthly GDP datasets, Monthly GDP and main sectors to four decimal places and Monthly gross domestic product: time series.

Monthly data prior to 2010 are derived using statistical methods from the available quarterly construction output data and should therefore be treated with some caution.