UK October construction PMI 44.1 vs 46.7 expected

• Prior 46.2

That’s a bit of a bummer as construction activity declines at its fastest pace in over five years in October. There were steep reductions in housing and civil engineering
activity, as firms cited a lack of new work to replace completed projects. S&P Global notes that:

“UK construction companies reported another
challenging month in October as the prolonged weakening
of order books so far in 2025 resulted in the fastest
decline in business activity for over five years. Civil
engineering and residential activity saw the fastest rates
of contraction, while commercial building showed some
resilience.

“Reduced workloads were again widely attributed to risk
aversion and delayed decision-making among clients,
which contributed to a slower-than-expected release of
new projects. Subdued demand in the wake of heightened
political and economic uncertainty also led to the
steepest drop in input buying since May 2020.

“Meanwhile, some positive signals for the construction
sector in October included a slowdown in cost inflation to
its lowest for one year, rising subcontractor availability,
and a sustained improvement in supplier performance.

“Looking ahead, business activity expectations for the
coming 12 months remained much weaker than the
long-run survey average, largely due to worries about
fragile investment sentiment and weak sales pipelines.
However, overall optimism levels edged up to the highest
since July as the prospect of lower borrowing costs
reportedly helped to boost demand projections.”

This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.