Latest RICS UK Construction Monitor

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) produces a quarterly sentiment survey of chartered surveyors operating across the UK construction industry⁽¹⁾. The survey comprises 12 questions covering opinions and expectations across a range of topics, including activity and growth, business enquiries, employment and credit conditions.

Net balance data reflects the proportion of respondents reporting either a rise or a fall in a specified area and does not quantify the scale of change in the underlying variable itself. A reading of –100 indicates that no respondents are reporting increases (or no change), while a reading of 100 indicates the opposite.

In 1Q2026, the survey received responses from 938 participants.

Latest RICS UK Construction Monitor

UK construction firms experienced softer workloads, rising cost pressures and weaker forward-looking sentiment in 1Q2026, according to the latest UK Construction Monitor from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The report’s headline workloads indicator, which captures respondents’ assessment of activity across the wider construction industry, returned a net balance of –12% in 1Q2026, down from –6% in the previous quarter. This indicates that more firms reported a decline in workloads than an increase.

Private housing workloads deteriorated further, falling to a net balance of –19% from –12% in 4Q2025, while private commercial and private industrial workloads both declined to –15%.

Public housing provided a comparatively brighter picture, improving slightly to –2% from –4%. Infrastructure remained the only sector to record positive growth in activity, posting a net balance of 4%, although this was down from 12% in the previous quarter as momentum eased. Within infrastructure, the energy sub-sector reportedly continued to perform most strongly in 1Q2026, followed by water and sewerage.

Overall, repair and maintenance activity continued to outperform new work, despite the corresponding net balance easing to 2%.

Expectations for workloads over the next 12 months weakened across all sectors, although infrastructure is still expected to be the principal driver of growth in the near term. The headline metric for this dropped to 2% from 17% in 4Q2025.

Financial constraints remained a major concern among respondents, cited by 66% of firms. This was the most commonly identified challenge, ahead of planning and regulation, cited by 63%, and insufficient demand, cited by 42%.

Dr David Crosthwaite, chief economist at BCIS, said: ‘RICS’s latest Construction Monitor is yet another stark reflection of the difficult conditions facing the construction sector. The industry has shown resilience during previous periods of economic turmoil, but the key question is how long that resilience can be sustained.

‘Political uncertainty within government will do little to support the wider economic outlook. Following doubts over the Prime Minister’s position, borrowing costs rose to 5.13%, approaching levels last seen during the 2008 global financial crisis. As both the latest PMI from S&P Global and RICS’s Construction Monitor now indicate, there is very little capacity for further instability to weaken client confidence and appetite for construction investment.’

RICS’s report also showed respondents expect cost pressures to strengthen over the coming year.

Tender prices are forecast to rise by 5.6% over the next 12 months, up from 4.4% in 4Q2025. Respondents also anticipate construction costs to increase by 6.6% over the same period, driven in part by an expected 7.5% rise in material costs.

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^{(1) RICS – UK Construction Monitor – here}