House building downturn drags construction to six-year low

The UK construction sector suffered its steepest downturn for six years in May as house building activity sank further, new orders dried up and contractors faced the sharpest materials inflation since 2022.
Latest data from the S&P Global UK Construction PMI showed overall activity falling to 38.2 in May from 39.7 in April, marking a seventeenth consecutive month of contraction and the weakest reading since the pandemic shock of May 2020.
Outside the pandemic period, the decline was the shar