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According to the Office for National Statistics, construction output in Great Britain grew by 1.2% in the second quarter (April to June) of 2025 compared with the first quarter 1.

New work increased by 1.1%, and repair & maintenance grew by 1.4%.

Monthly construction output is estimated to have grown by 0.3% in June 2025. This follows a fall of 0.5% in May 2025 and an increase of 0.9% in April 2025.

The increase in monthly output in June 2025 came solely from an increase in repair and maintenance (1.2%), as new work decreased by 0.4%.

The main contributors to the monthly increase were private housing repair & maintenance and non-housing repair & maintenance, which grew by 3.7% and 0.8%, respectively.

The picture of growth presented by the ONS contradicts the monthly S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index survey, which has had UK construction activity falling every month of the year so far, albeit with June as the least bad month of the year. However the PMI crashed back down again in July.

The darker news from ONS is that total construction new orders fell by 8.3% (£976m) in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the first quarter.

This quarterly decrease in orders came mainly from infrastructure new work and private commercial new work.

Scott Motley, head of programme, project and cost management at Aecom, commented: “An uplift in June’s output offers some relief after last month’s dip, though underlying conditions remain challenging. This improvement underlines how important it will be for the sector to hold onto any gains in the face of ongoing market pressures.

“The sharp fall in July’s construction PMI to its lowest reading since May 2020 is a clear warning sign. It suggests that the outlook for the rest of the summer is more uncertain, particularly for privately financed projects. The Bank of England’s decision to cut interest rates to 4% in early August may offer some relief for borrowing costs and help revive sentiment in housing and commercial markets, but it will take time for any benefits to feed through to activity on the ground. Maintaining this recovery will require both the continued stability of public-sector investment and a gradual strengthening of confidence in private-sector demand.”

David Crosthwaite, chief economist at the Building Cost Information Service, said: “New orders and output in construction were at odds in the second quarter. Output was broadly positive, with the sector outperforming the wider economy and posting 1.2% growth on the previous quarter.

“New order figures provided less positive reading. Orders were down on the quarter and the year with substantial quarterly decreases in the commercial, industrial and infrastructure sectors.

“In part, this may be symptomatic of the lack of clearly defined private finance routes in the Infrastructure Pipeline. Without the investment fine print, there’s little impetus yet for investors to engage.

“As ever, housebuilding is a major concern. Private housebuilding new orders were down significantly on the year in the second quarter, overshadowing the small increases in new private housing output.

“The stakes are high for this government. But it’s still impossible to see how it plans to scale up house-building with little to no control over house-builders’ output.”

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