A year ago this column said that the new government’s first Budget in October 2024 had done little to inspire confidence among investors or the business community generally, but that an apparent hiatus in new orders could be expected to be lifted in due course. Since then, the now 18 month old government has had another crack of the Budget whip – in November 2025 – but this time many commentators say the new Budget has compounded errors that it made before. And we still wait for the new orders hiatus to lift.
Uncertainty was to be a feature of 2025 and that climate unfortunately looks like persisting into at least the early part of this year. The S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report in December 2025 showed that the industry experienced the fastest downturn in activity for over five years. Some hope for 2026 can be found in what appear to be positive moves towards releasing planning logjams from reform of the approvals process contained in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Another source of delays during 2025 has been the approval process of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). In December, a House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report – The Building Safety Regulator: Building a better regulator – warned that the ‘unacceptable’ delays are leaving residents waiting for remediation of dangerous cladding in unsafe buildings.
The Lords committee accepted that the BSR’s increased scrutiny of the design, construction and management of buildings has had a positive impact on safety, but also found that the BSR has not given clear enough guidance to the industry on how applicants for approval can demonstrate that their buildings, especially high rise buildings, are safe, and called on the regulator to issue better guidance.
It seems that some developers may have themselves partly to blame as many applications are sometimes rejected or delayed due to basic errors and applicants’ inability to prove how they are considering elements of fire and structural safety. The Lords say that reflects poorly on the construction industry.
The constructional steelwork sector however is confident that it has demonstrably done all that could have been asked of it to help developers, designers and others in the supply chain to be able to prove the fire safety credentials of their projects. For example, a year ago BCSA launched a fire protection guidance campaign, aimed at making sure the supply chain understands what has to be done to ensure fire safety in buildings, and how that can be achieved using steel.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, what might justify confidence? There are some silver linings among the current clouds. For example, the conditions are right for a surge in office construction in London at least, developers say in a report from the London Property Alliance and property consultants Knight Frank. Changes to the planning system to enable the upgrade of central London’s outdated office space could deliver an £84 billion economic boost and unlock £262 billion in investment value, they say. There will be an estimated 11 million sq ft shortfall of space in London alone over the next five years. So the demand is there and the funding is there; all waiting for a removal of uncertainties.
Planning reform could remove major uncertainty
A year ago this column said that the new government’s first Budget in October 2024 had done little to inspire confidence among investors or the business community generally, but that an apparent hiatus in new orders could be expected to be lifted in due course. Since then, the now 18 month old government has had another crack of the Budget whip – in November 2025 – but this time many commentators say the new Budget has compounded errors that it made before. And we still wait for the new orders hiatus to lift.
Uncertainty was to be a feature of 2025 and that climate unfortunately looks like persisting into at least the early part of this year. The S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report in December 2025 showed that the industry experienced the fastest downturn in activity for over five years. Some hope for 2026 can be found in what appear to be positive moves towards releasing planning logjams from reform of the approvals process contained in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Another source of delays during 2025 has been the approval process of the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). In December, a House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report – The Building Safety Regulator: Building a better regulator – warned that the ‘unacceptable’ delays are leaving residents waiting for remediation of dangerous cladding in unsafe buildings.
The Lords committee accepted that the BSR’s increased scrutiny of the design, construction and management of buildings has had a positive impact on safety, but also found that the BSR has not given clear enough guidance to the industry on how applicants for approval can demonstrate that their buildings, especially high rise buildings, are safe, and called on the regulator to issue better guidance.
It seems that some developers may have themselves partly to blame as many applications are sometimes rejected or delayed due to basic errors and applicants’ inability to prove how they are considering elements of fire and structural safety. The Lords say that reflects poorly on the construction industry.
The constructional steelwork sector however is confident that it has demonstrably done all that could have been asked of it to help developers, designers and others in the supply chain to be able to prove the fire safety credentials of their projects. For example, a year ago BCSA launched a fire protection guidance campaign, aimed at making sure the supply chain understands what has to be done to ensure fire safety in buildings, and how that can be achieved using steel.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, what might justify confidence? There are some silver linings among the current clouds. For example, the conditions are right for a surge in office construction in London at least, developers say in a report from the London Property Alliance and property consultants Knight Frank. Changes to the planning system to enable the upgrade of central London’s outdated office space could deliver an £84 billion economic boost and unlock £262 billion in investment value, they say. There will be an estimated 11 million sq ft shortfall of space in London alone over the next five years. So the demand is there and the funding is there; all waiting for a removal of uncertainties.