”A frustrating year” sums up 2025 for many in construction – not due to outright disaster, though industry insolvencies tell their own story, but because the promised economic revival never arrived. As the sector looks to 2026, it is split between those braced for more slog and those who sense a turn is finally coming.

Three persistent headaches defined the year: regulatory delay, planning gridlock and fiscal chop‑and‑change. Nowhere has the strain been sharper than in the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) gateway 2 approvals. Decisions promised within 12 weeks stretched into months; some applications languished for more than a year, putting a heavy brake on London’s housing pipeline and souring relations between the industry and the regulator.

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