Government stimulus money has helped drive up new orders in the construction sector to the extent that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors thinks output could begin to grow in the third quarter although recovery would be gradual.
More than £3bn of new work was commissioned in July, up 39% on the previous month.
Infrastructure orders rose 59% in the three months to July compared with the same period a year earlier.
But public housing association housing orders dropped 12% over the same period and orders for new commercial property fell 45% and orders for work on private housing dropped 35%.
The Construction Products Association said the upturn in public work was insufficient to prop up the sector.
11/09/09 Financial Times 2
