Workforces from Kier may have been busy on Gloucester's skyline as the £107m Forum development steams ahead while their collegaues continue to plug away at the A417 Missing Link, but new national data on activity in the civil and commercial construction sector suggests the pace of work in the county and nationally has fallen to its slowest for many years.

Issued today, the latest monitoring of the UK construction industry overall, carried out by US finance analysts S&P Global, reports a downturn on the graph which, in all fairness, is dwarfed by the trough we experienced at the height of the pandemic, but the state of play, which has declined since Punchline-Gloucester.com reported the picture in January, reflects declining order books against what's been identified as a backdrop of poor business confidence.

Construction activity overall decreased for the fourth consecutive month as rising business uncertainty led to delayed decision-making on new projects, S&P said. Its latest survey highlights further declines in total order books and cutbacks to staffing numbers.

The uncertainty is yet to translate into businesses collapsing in the sector here in 2025, but as reported by Punchline, a family-run firm near Wotton-under-Edge folded with the loss of 62 jobs in October.

Despite these factors, output growth projections edged up to the highest since last December: at 46.6 in April, S&P Global UK Construction's Purchasing Managers' Index, which is a seasonally adjusted index tracking changes in total industry activity, remained below the 50.0 no-change value, but was up slightly from March's 46.4 and signalled the slowest decline in output levels for three months.

If there was a hint of an Easter bunny bounce, residential work got the benefit: it showed a degree of resilience in April, with the rate of contraction easing to the least marked in 2025 to date (indexed at 47.1). Moreover, the latest reduction in activity here was the slowest seen across the three sub-categories of construction work.

Civil engineering, by contrast, remained the weakest-performing area of activity in April (43.1), with the latest survey indicating a sharp rate of decline amid a lack of new work to replace completed projects.

In commercial work (indexed at 45.5) a decrease for the fourth month running in April was recorded, the pace of decline accelerating to its fastest since May 2020. The report said: "Construction companies widely noted that heightened business uncertainty and worries about the broader UK economic outlook had weighed on client demand."

With April data indicating a steep reduction in total new work, and a pace of decline unbeaten since May 2020, S&P said respondents typically commented on the impact of subdued business and consumer confidence, with lower workloads resulting in the fastest decline in purchasing activity for nearly five years.

"Softer demand for construction products and materials contributed to a modest improvement in wait times for suppliers' deliveries. Vendor performance has now improved in each of the past three months, although some firms continued to report international shipping delays."

Construction firms also told S&P they'd experienced cost rises across a wide range of items, particularly concrete products, insulation and timber, but some firms noted lower fuel costs.

Many reported that suppliers had also sought to pass on rising payroll costs, while staffing numbers across the whole sector decreased for the fourth consecutive month. Subdued demand and rising pay pressures were cited as reasons for the non-replacement of voluntary leavers.

Looking ahead, construction firms told S&P they are optimistic, on balance, about their prospects for the next 12 months. Around 41% of the survey panel forecast a rise in output, while only 18% predict a decline. This signalled a slight improvement in business optimism to its highest since December 2024. A number of firms commented on positive expectations for residential building work, despite "ongoing domestic economic headwinds and fragile client confidence".

Tim Moore, S&P's Global Market Intelligence Economics Director said: "UK construction companies have endured a bumpy ride since the start of the year as domestic economic headwinds and hesitancy among clients led to a lack of new work to replace completed contracts."

He added: "Output levels continued to slide in April, but the rate of decline eased to its slowest for three months. This was helped by slower reductions in residential building work and civil engineering activity."

Commercial construction, he said, was "a weak spot" and had lost momentum since March. Output decreased at the fastest pace for nearly five years amid reports of greater risk aversion among clients and a "wait-and-see" approach to major spending decisions.

He added: "Despite a sharp and accelerated fall in input buying, strong cost pressures persisted in April. Overall input price inflation eased only slightly from March's 26-month peak. Survey respondents commented on rising pricespaid for a range of raw materials, as well as efforts by suppliers to pass on greater payroll costs."

● One encouraging development in April was a slight improvement in business activity expectations for the year ahead. S&P's report concluded: "Output growth projections improved to the highest level so far this year, with a number of survey respondents citing the prospect of a turnaround in workloads across the residential building segment."