Construction industry of the United Kingdom


The construction industry of the United Kingdom contributed gross value of £64,747 million to the UK economy in 2004. The industry employed around 2.2 million people in the fourth quarter of 2009. There were around 194,000 construction firms in Great Britain in 2009, of which around 75,400 employed just one person and 62 employed over 1,200 people. In 2009 the construction industry in Great Britain received total orders of around £18.7 billion from the private sector and £15.1 billion from the public sector. While manufacturing in the United Kingdom shrank as a proportion of the economy between 1948 and 2013, replaced by the service sector, construction remained relatively flat at about 6% of the economy. In 2013 the government unveiled the Construction 2025 industrial strategy.
, the largest construction project in the UK is Crossrail. Due to open in 2018, it will be a new railway line running east to west through London and into the surrounding counties with a branch to Heathrow Airport. The main feature of the project is construction of 42 km of new tunnels connecting stations in central London. It is also Europe's biggest construction project with a £15 billion projected cost.
Prospective major construction projects include either expansion of London Heathrow Airport or expansion of Gatwick Airport, construction of the High Speed 2 rail line between London and the West Midlands, and construction of the Crossrail 2 rail line in London.
The industry was pushed into a period of turmoil following the Brexit vote in June 2016. Fears of a lack of EU labour post-Brexit were cited as a key reason for the uncertainty. Despite this, the industry has been performing better than expected in the months since, leading to cautious optimism in some quarters.
awaiting to be reconstructed if the line from Portadown to Armagh is reopened.