There has been a 7% fall in private housing construction orders compared with last year.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows although 2012 has seen some improvement in the industry, business continues to be blighted by contraction.

Orders are down 5% over the first three quarters of this year, when compared to the same period last year.

The Construction Products Association (CPA) has acknowledged there was some improvement in quarter three against the second quarter in 2012, but says the overall level of new orders remains poor.

This suggests conditions for construction will remain challenging in 2013.

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Milja Keijonen, Senior Economist at the Construction Products Association, said: "Our intelligence of the trading conditions the industry is experiencing has indicated a difficult market and these figures from ONS certainly endorse this position. However, there are some brighter areas, as both infrastructure and private industrial construction new orders are showing double digit increases of 46 and 24 per cent respectively for the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period last year.

"It would be very encouraging if this percentage growth was repeated across all sectors, but the figures for these two sectors are not unexpected and the overall figure of orders for all new work is negative.

"Commercial and private housing, that accounted for 36% of total construction output in 2011, saw orders decline both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year in the third quarter. New orders for commercial work, the largest construction sector, were 18% lower in the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, whilst private housing saw orders decline by 7% from a year earlier."

(IT)