Civil engineering was by far the worst-performing category of construction in December, with activity falling at the fastest pace since March 2009. Anecdotal evidence suggested that political indecision and delays with contract awards for new projects had led to falling business activity. Latest data also revealed a sharp drop in commercial work, which was partly attributed to clients opting to postpone spending decisions ahead of the general election. Meanwhile, house building dropped for the seventh month running in December, but the rate of decline was only modest. Construction companies recorded a marked reduction in new business volumes during December, although the pace of contraction remained less severe than the ten-year record seen in August. The latest survey also pointed to the softest decline in staffing numbers for four months. Where a drop in employment levels was reported, survey respondents often cited the non-replacement of voluntary leavers amid a lack of work to replace completed projects. A reduced pipeline of incoming new business led to falling demand for construction products and materials at the end of 2019. A robust and accelerated decline in input buying across the construction sector helped to alleviate some supply chain bottlenecks. As a result, vendor lead times lengthened to the least marked extent since September 2010. Sluggish demand for construction inputs acted as a brake on pricing among suppliers in December. The latest increase in overall purchasing costs was only modest and the weakest recorded by the survey for almost ten years. Survey respondents noted that higher fuel and energy costs were the main drivers of rising input prices. In contrast to the subdued output trends reported during December, construction companies indicated that their optimism towards the year-ahead business outlook rebounded to a nine-month high. A number of firms suggested that greater clarity in relation to Brexit had the potential to boost order books in 2020.
