UK construction new orders: public housing
UK construction new orders: public housing stood at £327m in Q2 2026, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is one of the indicators in the Construction orders and materials table (Value · Quarterly), with a complete series running from Q1 1964 to Q2 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the Construction orders and materials table
| Indicator | Q2-2026 | Q1-2026 | Q4-2025 | Q3-2025 | Q2-2025 | Q1-2025 | Q4-2024 | Q3-2024 | Q2-2024 | Q1-2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All new work | 9,163 | 10,395 | 11,782 | 12,183 | 11,192 | 11,805 | 9,157 | 9,355 | 12,517 | 10,643 | |
| All new housing | 2,659 | 2,756 | 2,824 | 2,456 | 2,470 | 2,380 | 2,504 | 2,094 | 3,285 | 2,742 | |
| New housing, public | 327 | 334 | 505 | 441 | 404 | 321 | 252 | 256 | 446 | 232 |
Understanding UK construction new orders: public housing
Isolating residential commissions funded or contracted by local councils, housing associations, and central government bodies, this series records new residential construction orders across the United Kingdom in current prices (£m). It covers newly commissioned social housing estates, municipal apartment blocks, and sheltered accommodation projects. Sibling rows separate this public activity from private commercial homebuilding, ensuring that publicly subsidised social residential schemes are monitored separately from market-led commercial housebuilding. General maintenance of existing municipal housing estates and decant refurbishments are excluded from this metric.
Public housing order values are heavily dictated by government spending rounds, budgetary allocations, and municipal fiscal timetables, leading to irregular spikes when regional procurement frameworks are finalised. Month-to-month and quarter-on-quarter changes can display significant noise because single major social housing framework agreements skew individual quarterly returns. Year-on-year analysis across several quarters provides an accurate assessment of municipal housebuilding intent, avoiding the trap of misinterpreting bureaucratic funding milestones as sudden shifts in broader construction sentiment.
Frequently asked questions
- Which organisations commission the work tracked in this series?
- It records residential contracts awarded by local authorities, registered social landlords, housing associations, and central government departments.
- Are council estate refurbishments and kitchen upgrades captured here?
- Routine maintenance, internal modernisation, and structural refurbishment of existing public housing stock are excluded.
- Why do public housing orders show sharp, intermittent quarterly movements?
- Public sector procurement cycles and annual budgetary authorisations often lead to contracts being signed in clusters rather than steadily through the year.