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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Phillip Inman

UK construction dives amid housebuilding slump and HS2 pause

A construction worker on the roof of a partly built house surrounded by scaffolding
The latest S&P Global/CIPS construction purchasing managers’ index showed a score of 45.0 in September. A score below 50 indicates that output has fallen. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

A slump in the building of new homes across the UK in September triggered the biggest fall in construction activity since May 2020, early in the Covid pandemic, according to a closely watched survey.

Engineering and infrastructure projects also suffered a sharp fall in activity that was partly blamed on the government pausing work on the HS2 rail link in the summer, before Rishi Sunak’s decision at the Conservative party conference to cancel construction of the leg between Birmingham and Manchester.

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