- Prior 46.8
The reading still shows a contraction but at least it is the highest since August last year. That shows some improvement in overall activity with the fall in new orders this time around being rather marginal. House building (44.2) remains the worst performing segment with marginal declines observed in civil engineering (49.2) and commercial building (49.1). A positive takeaway is that business activity expectations were the strongest since January 2022. S&P Global notes that:
"UK construction companies seem increasingly optimistic that the worst could be behind them soon as recession risks fade and interest rate cuts appear close on the horizon. The prospect of looser financial conditions and an improving economic backdrop meant that business activity expectations strengthened to the highest for two years in January. Moreover, there were again signs that customer demand is close to turning a corner as total new orders fell to the smallest extent for six months.
"Relatively subdued pipelines of new work nonetheless resulted in lower levels of construction output for a fifth successive month in January. House building remained by far the weakest-performing category, despite the rate of decline easing to its slowest since March 2023.
"Meanwhile, higher prices paid for imported items contributed to a rise in overall cost burdens for the first time since last September. However, there were still signs of space capacity across the construction supply chain as vendor delivery times shortened again at the start of 2024 and sub-contractor availability increased at a robust pace."
