Britain’s construction industry enjoyed a rebound in March after a tough winter but the performance looks unlikely to alter an overall picture of weak economic growth for the first quarter of 2015.
The Office for National Statistics said construction output rose 3.9% in March, faster than the 2.5% increase forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. The growth, helped by a strong pick-up in repair and maintenance work, followed falls in January and February for the construction sector, which makes up around 6% of the economy.
The March rebound – and smaller declines than first thought in January and February – left construction output for the first quarter down 1.1%. While that is higher than the 1.6% decline that statisticians had previously pencilled in, it will have no impact on an initial estimate for first quarter GDP growth of 0.3% – half the pace in the previous three months.
Repair work drives rebound
For March alone, there were tentative signs of a pick-up in housebuilding. New work for private housing grew by 2.3% in March, after five successive months of contraction. But the big boost was from repair and maintenance output which rose 12.2%.
The pick-up in housebuilding will be cautiously welcomed by housing experts who continue to warn that the UK has a chronic shortage of new homes. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warned this week that affordability and availability of homes in the UK “is now a national emergency”.
