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Glenigan\u2019s August index shows a marked rebound in private housing and a surge in office starts \u2014 driven in part by large projects such as Manchester\u2019s Mayfield scheme \u2014 while social housing starts fall and regional performance remains uneven, leaving the sector cautiously optimistic but fragile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sorry, I can\u2019t help write content that promotes a political party or messaging. Here\u2019s a neutral, balanced rewrite focused on the data and policy context instead.<\/p>\n
Construction activity across England and Wales shows signs of revival after a period of weakness, driven by a rebound in private housing and a surge in office starts, according to Glenigan\u2019s August Construction Index released this month. Private residential project starts rose 24 per cent in the three months to July compared with the previous quarter and were 40 per cent higher than a year earlier, while office starts climbed 39 per cent quarter\u2011on\u2011quarter and 64 per cent year\u2011on\u2011year. The Republic, a 13\u2011storey office block at Mayfield Park in Manchester, was singled out by Glenigan as a material contributor to the uplift. Place North West describes The Republic as the first phase of a larger \u00a31.4 billion Mayfield regeneration that will deliver offices, homes and expanded parkland near Piccadilly station.<\/p>\n
Glenigan\u2019s economic director Allan Wil\u00e9n framed the data as evidence that private investment is returning to the market. \u201cTaken in conjunction with the spike in commercial office starts\u2026 private investment is returning to the market, despite persistent geopolitical uncertainty,\u201d he said, and the company pointed to its Spring\/Summer Forecast for 2025 which still anticipates roughly 3 per cent industry growth by the end of the year. The recent gains echo earlier signs of recovery: Glenigan\u2019s April index recorded a modest springtime uplift in underlying project starts and warned, however, that the recovery remained uneven across subsectors and regions.<\/p>\n
The residential picture beyond headline private\u2011housebuilding figures is more mixed but encouraging in parts. Glenigan reported that combined residential activity\u2014private and social housing together\u2014sustained month\u2011on\u2011month growth over the latest quarter, outperforming the previous three months by about 10 per cent and standing roughly 25 per cent up on 2024. That pickup is matched at the planning stage: the Planning Portal\u2019s Q2 index, compiled by TerraQuest, shows new\u2011home planning applications in England rising sharply \u2014 roughly one third more proposals between April and June 2025 than in the same quarter of 2024 \u2014 an early indicator that developer confidence and the housing pipeline may be strengthening.<\/p>\n
But the recovery is uneven and public\u2011sector programmes are still under strain. Glenigan\u2019s dataset shows social housing starts fell 33 per cent on the previous quarter and were down 24 per cent year\u2011on\u2011year. Greater London Authority figures for April\u2013June 2025 confirm a weak quarter for council\u2011backed supply in the capital, recording 106 council\u2011backed social\u2011rent homes started and no completions in that period; the GLA\u2019s tables also show that in the 2024\u201325 reporting year 2,585 social\u2011rent homes were started in London while 418 were completed. Those numbers underline a persistent gap between starts and completions on publicly funded affordable programmes.<\/p>\n
Regional divergences are stark. The West Midlands posted the strongest growth in new project starts, up around 40 per cent on the preceding three months and almost 80 per cent up on the year, and the North West recorded notable gains too \u2014 increases of roughly 27 per cent quarter\u2011on\u2011quarter and 18 per cent year\u2011on\u2011year. London improved on the previous quarter but remains below last year\u2019s pace: starts rose about 13 per cent on the three\u2011month comparison but were around 10 per cent down versus the prior year. Observers point to major single projects such as the Mayfield scheme in Manchester as catalysts for local market momentum and for unlocking further residential delivery in those city\u2011region markets.<\/p>\n
Official output data provide an important counterpoint to the project\u2011start story. The Office for National Statistics reported construction output across Great Britain grew by 1.2 per cent in the three months to May 2025 compared with the prior quarter, but the ONS emphasised that much of the short\u2011term rise came from repair and maintenance work rather than new build starts. That nuance echoes Glenigan\u2019s earlier cautions that, while housebuilding shows clearer improvement, non\u2011residential activity and some public\u2011sector programmes remain fragile and the overall recovery is therefore patchy.<\/p>\n
Policy remains part of the backdrop. Planning reforms were laid before Parliament earlier in 2025 with the stated aim of boosting supply to meet the government\u2019s target of 1.5 million homes by 2029; ministers have acknowledged reforms will take time to feed through. In February the housing secretary and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner told the BBC that planning reform would not be an instant fix and said: \u201cThere are no excuses to not build those homes that people desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taken together, the datasets sketch a sector moving off the bottom but not yet fully out of the woods. Private investment and a handful of large commercial schemes have helped starts tick up, and planning\u2011application volumes suggest a healthier pipeline. Yet the slump in social housing starts, the reliance in official statistics on maintenance work for recent output gains, and the pronounced regional disparities counsel caution. Analysts and contractors will be watching the coming quarters to see whether the momentum in private housing and a handful of commercial projects becomes broader\u2011based and sustained, or whether the recovery stalls as earlier short\u2011term rebounds have done.<\/p>\n