Methodology, publication notes and corrections

Research categories and definitions

Our reporting covers three categories with equal prominence: Residential Construction (housebuilding starts and completions, residential construction output and new orders), Commercial & Industrial Construction (private commercial and private industrial construction output and new orders) and Construction Industry Indicators (company registrations, insolvencies, material prices, labour earnings and overall construction activity).

"Commercial construction" means building and development activity as measured by official construction statistics. It does not refer to commercial property investment prices, rents or yields.

Private commercial, private industrial, public non-housing and infrastructure work are kept as separate statistical categories, exactly as the Office for National Statistics defines them. They are only combined where the source publishes an official total.

Each figure states its geography (United Kingdom, Great Britain or England) and its period. Construction output is monthly; new orders and housebuilding starts and completions are quarterly. Quarterly figures are never presented as monthly figures.

Companies House counts: a company can list several SIC codes. It is counted once in each matching category (for example both commercial building, SIC 41201, and domestic building, SIC 41202) and once in the overall construction total. We publish the number of companies listing both codes so the overlap is visible.

Publication notes and workflow

The UK Construction Market Monitor (Residential & Commercial Construction Intelligence) is planned as a monthly publication. Every report and figure passes through four stages before it is visible:

1. Draft — an editor enters figures (manually or by CSV import) and writes the report.
2. Under review — a second person checks every figure against the official release and confirms the source's licence and attribution.
3. Approved — an administrator approves the content.
4. Published — an administrator publishes it immediately or on a scheduled date. Only published, verified figures appear on public pages.

Imported data never overwrite published figures automatically: new or revised values enter as drafts and must be reviewed and approved. Each edition keeps its own permanent web address and is never replaced by the following month's report.

Corrections policy

If we find an error, or an official source revises a figure we have published, we correct the page promptly and record the date and nature of the correction on the affected report. We do not silently change published conclusions.

To report a possible error, please contact us.

• 12 October 2026 — Housing starts and completions (England, Q2 2026) were shown using MHCLG's not seasonally adjusted series (Live Table 213) instead of the seasonally adjusted headline series (Live Table 222). Housing starts corrected from 38,510 to 35,910 (+20% on Q2 2025, +6% on Q1 2026). Housing completions corrected from 37,530 to 35,800 (+1% on Q2 2025, −3% on Q1 2026). Earlier quarters and charts now use the seasonally adjusted series. Source: MHCLG, Housing supply: indicators of new supply, England: April to June 2026 — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-supply-indicators-of-new-supply-england-april-to-june-2026/housing-supply-indicators-of-new-supply-england-april-to-june-2026