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ONS Construction statistics, Great Britain: 2022

ended 28. November 2023

The Office for National Statistics has just published a report entitled, 'Construction statistics, Great Britain: 2022'. Key points below. Newspage asked a selection of experts for their views, bottom.

  • The value of construction new work in current prices in Great Britain in 2022 increased 15.8% to a record high of £132,989 million; this was driven by growth in both private sector work of £15,003 million and in the public sector of £3,158 million.
  • Construction new orders rose 11.4% in 2022 to £80,837 million, driven by private infrastructure, private commercial and other public non-housing; the only sector that decreased was private industrial.
  • The construction industry saw a 59.4% annual increase in the number of recorded company insolvencies in 2022.
  • In the Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2022, 374,332 Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered construction firms were operating in the construction industry across Great Britain, which is a 5.9% growth compared with 2021.
  • The number of construction-related employees (excluding self-employment) in Great Britain increased 3.3% in 2022 compared with 2021, totalling at 1.4 million workers; the biggest contributor to the growth in 2022 was England with a growth of 3.5%, Wales and Scotland both increased by 2.0%.
  • The all-work construction Output Price Index saw strong annual price growth of 8.8% in December 2022.

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Charles Breen
Founder at C B
There has been strong growth in private commercial construction and this is a sector where price is not a key issue as they get a tax rebate on capital expenditure. This is driving a commercial building boom and an increase in the cost and value of orders. Such a large increase in construction firm insolvencies is a worrying trend and reflects an erosion in their resilience since the Covid years. With the current cost of living crisis and a further increase in material costs driven by inflation, expect more firms to go to the wall in 2024. This will be exacerbated by the current slowdown in building and new build purchases we are currently experiencing.
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Graham Cox
Director at Bridging Hub
The value of new orders grew by 11.4% in 2022 but much of this was a result of inflation. The headline figure was the almost 60% increase in construction firm insolvencies, no doubt a result of the pandemic and spiralling costs. What's worrying is this year will probably have been worse for the building industry, with the effects of a high interest rate environment causing many projects to be canceled or delayed.
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Joe Garner
Founder & Managing Director at Joe Garner Consulting
Construction data is a year or so behind in reality, so the strong ONS data is linked to planning applications started in 2019 and 2020 with construction work starting in 2020 and 2021. The reality is that planning applications and new construction starts have since fallen off a cliff, which is likely to result in further insolvencies and a nose dive in construction output data for 2024, as the true impact of 2022 and 2023 ripples through.
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Stacey Rohwer
Head of Investment at IP Global
This report reflects what we've seen in the UK in the past 12 months, namely the capacity to deliver new construction is becoming increasingly limited, which is stifling housing supply. There are also fewer construction companies able to deliver on their anticipated pipeline due to rising finance costs.