INTRODUCTION
Power play - delivering projects amid competing energy needs
Construction was the slowest growing sector of the UK economy in Q1 2025 according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and industry sentiment has remained largely subdued throughout the first half of the year.
However, there are tentative signs of progress and the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill is poised to introduce a raft of supply-side reforms designed to kickstart housebuilding and spur infrastructure construction.
But a new and troubling barrier to development has emerged, the increasingly frenzied competition between construction projects for connection to a regional electricity grid. In some parts of the country, developers are enduring long waits for their schemes to be connected.
This edition of the UK Market Intelligence report explores how built asset investors and their project teams can navigate the lengthening ‘connection queue’ most effectively. It also examines how the needs of real estate developers can be reconciled with those of energy-intensive heavy industry as well as sectors like data centres.
At a glance
New orders up by 26.6 percent in Q1 2025 over Q4, after two consecutive falls.
Construction annual wage inflation falls to 5.1 percent in April, from 9.5 percent in March.
Bank Rate down to 4.25 percent, the lowest rate in two years.
Contents
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