Private new housing was main drag as construction output fell 1.0% in three months to August 2026
Great Britain's construction output fell 1.0% in the three months to August 2026, the ONS estimates, the second consecutive quarterly decline. Repair and maintenance fell 0.3%, a smaller drop than the 1.4% in new work.
The Engineer · Build desk
Bar chart of construction output change in the three months to August 2026: private new housing down 3.2%, all new work down 1.4%, repair and maintenance down 0.3%.
Change in output, three months to August 2026
| Item | Value | Claim |
|---|---|---|
| Private new housing | −3.2% | 3 |
| All new work | −1.4% | 2 |
| Repair and maintenance | −0.3% | 2 |
What happened
- Five of the nine construction sectors fell in the quarter, and private new housing, down 3.2%, made the main negative contribution.
- Monthly output fell 0.2% in August 2026, the fourth consecutive decrease in the monthly series.
- The ONS revised July from a 0.1% rise to a 0.5% fall and June from a 0.1% fall to a 0.3% fall.
- August's decline came solely from new work, down 0.7%, while repair and maintenance grew 0.4%.
- Builders merchant Travis Perkins reported revenue down 1.6% in the three months to the end of September and named new build housing as the biggest reason, Building reported.
Why it matters
- decision A plan that counts on repair work to offset weaker new build is leaning on one month, because over the quarter repairs fell as well.
- constraint Treat the latest monthly figure as provisional when setting any planning trigger on it.
- constraint A demand recovery would meet a labour limit: Gleeds reports shortages, especially in M&E, already hitting jobs.
Private new housing fell 1.9% in August alone and was the main contributor to that month's drop in new work [7]. Over the quarter, repairs fell about a fifth as much as new work did [19]. August's repair growth is a single month, in a series that has just been revised [8].
The size of the revision matters. July was first published as a rise and now stands as a fall, a swing of 0.6 points [16]. That is three times the size of August's own 0.2% drop [17]. Before the revision July was an increase, so a run of declines could not have included it [18]. The four-month count exists only in the current vintage.
ONS says the release revises all periods and moves the base year to 2024 [8]. Seasonal adjustment factors are re-estimated every month and reviewed annually [8]. Separately, it corrected a data error in public new housing work back to January 2022 and apologised [9]. That is a different sector from private new housing [3].
Output is also a lagging measure. ONS defines it as work chargeable to customers in the period, excluding VAT and payments to subcontractors, and the volume series strips out price changes [10]. It records what builders delivered. New orders sit in a separate quarterly dataset, last released on 13 August 2026 [11], so this bulletin alone cannot size next year's pipeline.
The demand signal in the coverage comes from people with a view. Jo Streeten, managing director, buildings & places at Aecom, said: "Higher financing costs and uncertainty over future demand continue to hold back client decisions, leaving too many projects struggling to move from planning to delivery." [12] Her account puts the cause upstream of the output figures, in client decisions.
Travis Perkins pointed the same way. "UK construction output and volumes remain subdued, most notably in new build residential, as macroeconomic uncertainty persists," the merchant said in a trading update [14].
In our view, the quarter supports planning for lower volumes where order books follow private new housing. For firms counting on repairs to fill the gap, it supports flat to slightly lower volumes until a second month of growth confirms August.
What to watch
- The next monthly ONS construction output release: whether August's repair growth survives revision and whether the monthly decline reaches a fifth month.
- The next quarterly ONS new orders release, which would show whether private housing orders are falling alongside output.
- Further merchant trading updates, to see if new build residential stays the main cause cited for lower volumes.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence82
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap−5
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence78
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Total construction output is estimated to have fallen by 1.0% in the three months to August 2026, the second consecutive decrease in the three-monthly series.
- [2]
Over the three months to August 2026, new work fell by 1.4% and repair and maintenance fell by 0.3%.
- [3]
Five of the nine sectors fell in the three months to August 2026; the main negative contribution was private new housing, which fell by 3.2%.
- [4]
Monthly construction output fell by 0.2% in August 2026, the fourth consecutive decrease in the monthly series.
- [5]
July 2026 was a decrease of 0.5%, revised from an increase of 0.1%, and June 2026 was a decrease of 0.3%, revised from a decrease of 0.1%.
- [6]
The August 2026 monthly decrease came solely from new work, which fell by 0.7%, while repair and maintenance grew by 0.4%.
- [7]
The main contribution to the August 2026 monthly decrease in new work was private new housing, which fell by 1.9%.
- [8]
The release contains revisions for all periods, updates the base year to 2024, and seasonal adjustment factors are re-estimated every month and reviewed annually.
- [9]
The ONS identified a data error in the public housing new work sector from January 2022, corrected it in this release and the Quarterly National Accounts of 30 September 2026, and apologised.
- [10]
Construction output estimates are monthly estimates of output chargeable to customers for work done in the period, excluding VAT and payments to subcontractors; volume estimates are value estimates adjusted to remove the impact of price changes.
- [11]
New orders in the construction industry is a separate quarterly ONS dataset, released 13 August 2026.
- [12]
"Higher financing costs and uncertainty over future demand continue to hold back client decisions, leaving too many projects struggling to move from planning to delivery."
- [13]
Travis Perkins said the slide in new build housing was the biggest reason its revenue in the three months to the end of September was down 1.6%.
- [14]
"UK construction output and volumes remain subdued, most notably in new build residential, as macroeconomic uncertainty persists,"
- [15]
Consultant Gleeds said in its latest Market Report that worries around high inflation and interest rates continue to blight construction confidence, and that labour shortages, especially in M&E, were also hitting jobs.
- [16]
The revision to July 2026 monthly output was 0.6 percentage points, from +0.1% to -0.5%.
- [17]
The July revision (0.6 points) is three times the size of August's 0.2% monthly fall.
- [18]
As first published, July 2026 was an increase of 0.1%, so a run of consecutive monthly decreases could not have included July before the revision; the four-month run exists only in the revised data.
- [19]
Over the three months to August 2026, the fall in repair and maintenance was about a fifth of the fall in new work (0.3 / 1.4 = 0.21).
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Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- Output stays in reverse as Travis Perkins blames ongoing housing slump for slide in trading | News | Building
building.co.uk
1 article · October 15, 2026
- Construction output in Great Britain
ons.gov.uk
1 article · October 14, 2026
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