Featured Region: South East

The South East consists of the following Counties: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle Of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Sussex.

The construction industry in the South East of England has fallen back in 2013 after enjoying a buoyant couple of years relative to the sluggish performance seen elsewhere around the UK.

Despite a strong private sector, the region has not fully escaped the effects of government cuts. Although the value of social housing has increased over the last two years, the flow of project starts in public sector related areas such as health, education and community & amenity have been less positive. Regardless there was still a 19% increase in underlying project starts during 2012 as private sector activity made up for this weakness.

It is the relative strength of the private sector which has driven the good performance in the South East. The region was one of the focal points of the surge in private housing starts seen during 2012, especially towards the end of the year. Business confidence seems resilient, and we have seen an increase in planned office, private housing and industrial projects over the past year.

The first six months of 2013 were less positive, starts have fell by 13% compared to the first six months of 2012. The largest decline in the period was in industrial sector starts which have fallen by 70%, but other private sectors have also been weak in a reversal of the trend seen during 2012. The poor performance during the first half of the year has continued into the third quarter with starts falling by 29%, and we expect starts for the full year to be 8% below the value seen during 2012. Longer term we expect starts to bounce back during 2014 due to renewed strength in the wider economy.