The Scottish Building Federation (SBF) has issued a statement on the latest official UK construction industry output statistics.

Welcoming the news, SBF's Managing Director Vaughan Hart said: "There are continued signs of improving prospects for the industry and a sense of cautious optimism about the outlook for 2014.

"At the same time, levels of output from key sectors of the industry such as private sector house-building and commercial construction remain significantly below where they were five years ago. That suggests that recovery in construction and across the wider economy remains fragile.

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"Industry capacity has reduced significantly during the recession and that could restrict future growth within the building sector thus driving up prices in the short to medium term. Nonetheless, I hope to see the recent positive momentum in construction activity sustained into next year."

Last week, official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that output in the UK construction industry increased by 2.2% in October. It said the increase was fuelled by a large increase in house building.

New housing rose 5.8% from the previous month, while repairs were also up, but other types of new work declined.

The figures marked a sharp improvement from September 2013, when construction output shrank by 0.5%. However, the ONS added that construction growth in the industrial sector was still "weak and negative".

(JP/MH)