Today Glenigan, one of the construction industry’s leading insight experts, releases the November 2024 edition of its Construction Index.

And it reveals that the Chancellor’s recent Budget and subsequent changes to the fiscal rules are expected to release funds for investment in schools.

In particular, the research reveals that health starts experienced a healthy period, increasing 8% against the preceding three months, yet remaining 8% below 2023 levels.

The report focuses on the three months to the end of October 2024, covering all underlying projects with a total value of £100m or less (unless otherwise indicated, with all figures seasonally adjusted).

It provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of year-on-year construction data, giving built environment professionals a unique insight into sector performance over the last 12 months.

And it comes just weeks before sector-specific figures are provided in Glenigan’s monthly Construction Review.

These will provide more-indepth information on the state of the health and care construction sector.

The November Index shows construction activity beginning to stabilise with project start levels holding steady in the three months to the end of October.

Both residential and non-residential sectors managed modest gains, inching up on the preceding period.

However, civils starts dragged, despite strong performance earlier in the year, dropping 8% against the preceding quarter.

Commenting on the findings, Glenigan’s economic director, Allan Wilen, said: “Promisingly, the recent deterioration in project starts has eased off over the past few months.

“This will come as a huge relief across the entire construction supply chain.

“Modest growth in both the residential and non-residential sectors, while not spectacular, is encouraging in an otherwise-challenging environment and verifies our prediction of gradual recovery next year, and in 2026.

“Of course, last week’s Budget will provide a further potential boost.

“The Chancellor’s changes to the fiscal rules will release funds for investing in schools, health, infrastructure, industrial and social housing, providing extra work for the industry.

“With more critical investment set to buoy the industry, it will be interesting to see how these policy and spending commitments play out in the coming months, and how they affect our December, January, and February indexes.”

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