Construction output was up 1% in October compared with the same month last year. New work increased by 4.2% while there was a fall of 4.2% in repair and maintenance – perhaps due to a shortage of people prepared to carry out repair and maintenance when there is enough new build to keep them busy.

Compared with September, output increased by 0.2%.

Within new work, there were increases in private commercial (4.1%) and private new housing (2.3%) while public new housing, private industrial, public other new work and infrastructure reported decreases of 2.8%, 1.6%, 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively.

Within the repair and maintenance (R&M) category, there were falls in all work types, housing repair and maintenance decreasing by 2.4% and non-housing repair and maintenance decreasing by 0.6%.

New orders in Quarter 3 (July to September) are estimated to have increased by 0.8% compared with Quarter 2 and showed no growth compared with Quarter 3 last year. There were increases in orders for public new work (10.8%), private commercial (4.1%) and all other work (2.7%) in the quarter.