The construction industry is suffering its longest downturn since the financial crisis nearly 20 years ago, as housebuilding slumps.
In a bleak report that made a mockery of Labour’s pledge to ‘build, baby, build’, data provider S&P Global said its index of activity in the sector fell to 44.5 last month, from 46.4 in January.
It was the 14th month in a row that the reading has been below the all-important 50 mark that separates growth from decline.
The report showed that housebuilding ‘remained the weakest-performing segment’ of the industry with the slump deepening last month.
The report came just days after the Office for Budget Responsibility said it expects just 220,000 new homes in 2026-27 – down from an average of 260,000 a year in the early 2020s.
The projected fall is a humiliation for Labour after it vowed to build 300,000 homes a year in this Parliament – a total of 1.5m by 2029.
Building slump: S&P Global said its index of activity in Britain’s construction sector fell to 44.5 last month from 46.4 in January
Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith said: ‘Days after Rachel Reeves told us her plan is working, more evidence that it very clearly is not.
‘Construction is an engine of growth, but like many sectors, it is misfiring badly.’
The S&P Global report came as Taylor Wimpey, one of the country’s biggest housebuilders, revealed that profits more than halved last year, falling 54 per cent to £146.5million.
It came despite revenue climbing 13 per cent to £3.8billion.
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