Construction output in April rose 4.6% (to £113million) compared with April 2013 – new work increasing by 4.9%, due largely to strong growth in new housing and private industrial work, while repair & maintenance increased 4.2%.

The second estimate of GDP for Q1 2014, published on 22 May, included an estimate of construction growth of 0.6% in April compared with March. This has been revised up in this release to an increase of 1.5%.

New orders for construction in the first quarter compared with the previous quarter (Q4 2013) were estimated to be 6.3% lower. There were falls in orders for public new housing (-45.7%), infrastructure (-16.5%), private industrial (-14.6%) and private commercial work (-1.9%). Public other new work and private housing new orders increased by 6.8% and 2.8% respectively.

The fall in public housing was the largest fall since the series began in 1964. A possible reason for the fall in public housing new orders is that investment in housing associations is coming from private investment rather than a public source.