New figures have revealed Scotland's construction output fell slightly between 2015 and 2016.

The Office for National Statistics publication states the industry generated £14.5 billion last year, a slight decline from £14.7bn during 2015.

While the housing, private commercial and repair and maintenance sectors were all up year-on-year, infrastructure declined from £4.2bn to £3.1bn in 2016.

Scottish Building Federation Managing Director, Vaughan Hart, said the results are encouraging and signal the industry is moving in the right direction.

"There has been encouragingly strong performance from the housing, private commercial and repair and maintenance sectors of the Scottish construction industry last year," he said.

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"Output from the housing sector rose by 16%, largely driven by an increase in private housebuilding.

"The private commercial sector was also strong, rising 6% to more than £2.6 billion, the highest it's been since 2008. We've also seen good output in repair and maintenance, rising 5% to more than £4.1 billion. On the other side of the equation, infrastructure output has dropped significantly and private industrial activity is at a new low, partly prompted by the removal of empty property rates relief which is a policy we have consistently campaigned against."

"Overall, these are encouraging results which suggest that the industry is moving in the right direction in terms of achieving a balanced recovery across different sectors, hopefully with a reduced reliance on major infrastructure projects to drive future growth as other key sectors such as housing, commercial and repair and maintenance continue to show strengthening performance."

(LM/MH)