Construction sector sentiment continued to record a level at or close to long-run averages over the first quarter of 2022. On the whole, steady workload for most of the industry and a return of more stability in the trading environment through 2021 underpinned much of the balanced view. The effects of the war in Ukraine appear to have not yet unduly influenced construction sentiment during this period, although it is expected that effects will filter into these confidence measures in due course. Despite rising uncertainty, construction activity is expected to hold up over the first half of 2022 and into Q3 as existing workload momentum carries the industry forward. But the lookahead window is shorter now because of greater uncertainty across many economies, resulting from the war in Ukraine, further covid lockdowns in Asia, and domestic pressures on UK household budgets.

Construction new work output increased by 0.1% between January and February 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics’ construction output data release. Similarly, all work output recorded negligible change between the two months. On a year-on-year basis, the change measure is better for new work and all work output, showing rises of 5.7% and 6.1% respectively at February 2022. Reasonable momentum is therefore evident across the industry, at an aggregate level, over the year to Q1 2022.

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