Featured Region: Wales

Underlying value of construction projects starting on site. (Excludes individual projects of more than £100 million and framework agreements).

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Wales consists of the following Counties: Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan.

After three years of weakness, the Welsh construction industry recovered well last year: the 33% rise in the underlying value of new work was one of the largest increases seen in the UK.

The strength in private housing was a particularly abundant source of new work to the construction industry in Wales over the last year. After three consecutive years of decline, private housing grew by 24% last year.

Private non-residential construction was very strong in 2010. Every sector showed significant growth during last year: the underlying value of retail and hotel & leisure project starts increased by 119% and 297% respectively on the totals of 2009.

Unfortunately, the first half of 2011 saw underlying starts on site decline by 32%. This decline has bottomed out – over the three months to September, there was a no change on the same period of last year. However, for the year we forecast underlying projects starts to decline by 7%.