House building continues to accelerate

It’s important when you’re running a business to keep an eye on what’s happening in your industry. So at Larkfleet we are always interested in the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index.

The rather lengthy title refers to a monthly survey of purchasing managers in construction companies.

OK – it’s not the most exciting read to hit the bookshops this week. But it does tell us a bit about what’s happening in the construction industry.

The index covers all types of construction activity, ranging from bridge and road building through construction of factories and offices to the building of houses.

The good news overall is that the index remains ‘positive’ – that is, purchasing managers expect continued growth in UK construction in the months ahead. The slightly less good news is that the index overall has dropped from 54.8 in June to 51.9 in July, the lowest figure since August 2016.

In among the ‘mixed messages’ we see that residential building was the strongest performing category of activity in July.

And we are pleased to say that at Larkfleet we are ‘doing our bit’ to push up the figures. We are currently building more homes in more places than we have ever done before.

You can see all our latest developments here. It is probably more interesting than reading the IHS Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index.