Just when investors were hoping for a bit more stability on the geopolitical and national political fronts, attention was forced towards whether disruptive changes might be forced on the UK government by continuing scandal. It matters to the construction industry. Despite the recent downward interest rate trend, investment plans are easily upset by changes, and even the threat of changes, such as that.
Company planners across the production, marketing, sales and other functions are forever on the lookout for signs of whether their projections for the year ahead – on which a lot of investment funds could have already been committed – will turn out to be accurate. Careers and companies alike can be made or broken by the outcomes, so reasons to be cheerful are keenly sought. Fortunately, there have recently been some.
In the property development and related sectors a keenly watched indicator for many years has been the Deloitte Regional Crane Surveys. The just released annual update brought welcome news that construction starts on site are up on a year ago, although the volume under construction has reduced.
So it was a mixed bag, but the Regional Crane Surveys at least confirmed that not all is bleak across the four major markets covered – Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. There is a separate and possibly even more keenly awaited bi-annual London Crane survey to come soon.
The regional crane surveys monitor construction activity in the central areas of the four cities, showing an overall increase in the number of new starts, but a decrease in the number of units and floorspace under construction. There was an increased level of new construction starts compared with the previous survey, with 53 new schemes compared with 47 in 2024, and 63 in 2023.
Some of the new starts were smaller than a year ago, especially in the residential sector, which accounted for 27 of the 53 new starts. Seven of the new starts were office developments, where a focus on refurbishments was noted, eight were student housing schemes, and five were hotels. There was one new start in retail / leisure and one in education.
Looking to offices, 2m sq. ft. of office space was under construction in 2025, down from 2.8m sq. ft. in 2024, with 1.7m sq. ft. delivered to market in 2025. Looking ahead, Deloitte says they have seen an impact from strategic public and private sector investment and collaboration, with developer sentiment shifting from cautious optimism to commitments to construction in a number of cases.
They see a resilient pipeline, with healthy forward-looking activity across the student accommodation and hotel sectors and a more positive outlook this year across the offices and residential sectors. Deloitte has seen a clear focus on high-quality refurbishment of offices, with strong take up of the best quality office space, and expects headline rental levels to rise in 2026, which may help to unlock further office schemes.
A further reason to be cheerful comes from the S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index that shows improvement despite output remaining in negative territory for the 13th consecutive month. January saw the slowest contraction in seven months as last year’s sustained downturn in construction output eased. If that trend remains stable, we can all perhaps breathe a sigh of relief.
Reasons to be cheerful are being seen again
Just when investors were hoping for a bit more stability on the geopolitical and national political fronts, attention was forced towards whether disruptive changes might be forced on the UK government by continuing scandal. It matters to the construction industry. Despite the recent downward interest rate trend, investment plans are easily upset by changes, and even the threat of changes, such as that.
Company planners across the production, marketing, sales and other functions are forever on the lookout for signs of whether their projections for the year ahead – on which a lot of investment funds could have already been committed – will turn out to be accurate. Careers and companies alike can be made or broken by the outcomes, so reasons to be cheerful are keenly sought. Fortunately, there have recently been some.
In the property development and related sectors a keenly watched indicator for many years has been the Deloitte Regional Crane Surveys. The just released annual update brought welcome news that construction starts on site are up on a year ago, although the volume under construction has reduced.
So it was a mixed bag, but the Regional Crane Surveys at least confirmed that not all is bleak across the four major markets covered – Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. There is a separate and possibly even more keenly awaited bi-annual London Crane survey to come soon.
The regional crane surveys monitor construction activity in the central areas of the four cities, showing an overall increase in the number of new starts, but a decrease in the number of units and floorspace under construction. There was an increased level of new construction starts compared with the previous survey, with 53 new schemes compared with 47 in 2024, and 63 in 2023.
Some of the new starts were smaller than a year ago, especially in the residential sector, which accounted for 27 of the 53 new starts. Seven of the new starts were office developments, where a focus on refurbishments was noted, eight were student housing schemes, and five were hotels. There was one new start in retail / leisure and one in education.
Looking to offices, 2m sq. ft. of office space was under construction in 2025, down from 2.8m sq. ft. in 2024, with 1.7m sq. ft. delivered to market in 2025. Looking ahead, Deloitte says they have seen an impact from strategic public and private sector investment and collaboration, with developer sentiment shifting from cautious optimism to commitments to construction in a number of cases.
They see a resilient pipeline, with healthy forward-looking activity across the student accommodation and hotel sectors and a more positive outlook this year across the offices and residential sectors. Deloitte has seen a clear focus on high-quality refurbishment of offices, with strong take up of the best quality office space, and expects headline rental levels to rise in 2026, which may help to unlock further office schemes.
A further reason to be cheerful comes from the S&P Global UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index that shows improvement despite output remaining in negative territory for the 13th consecutive month. January saw the slowest contraction in seven months as last year’s sustained downturn in construction output eased. If that trend remains stable, we can all perhaps breathe a sigh of relief.