Activity boosted by booming housing sector as purchasing managers’ survey hits record high
A rapid return of new business across construction has been confirmed with record new orders being reported by purchasing managers, as materials prices continue to soar.
Construction companies attributed the surge in order books to strong demand for residential building work and high levels of confidence about the near-term economic outlook.
Housing was the strongest performing sector while commercial increased at its fastest rate since August 2007.
The latest IHS Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI survey showed 47% of respondents reporting higher volumes of new work.
Overall, the update has revealed a fourth straight month of growth activity for the sector, with the PMI activity index jumping to 64.2 in May, up from 61.6 in April.
Mirroring order book growth, the overall rate of input price inflation was the highest in the survey’s 24 years of data collection.
The survey found that stretched supply chains