Fears are growing over the health of the UK construction sector after growth slowed to a crawl last month.
Confidence among builders fell to its lowest level since the depths of the first lockdown in May 2020, with more than a quarter of the 150 construction companies surveyed predicting that business activity would fall over the next year.
The purchasing managers’ index for the industry dropped to 50.4 from 53.2. The reading, though above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, is well below the consensus of economists polled by Reuters, who expected the PMI to fall to 52.
