With the latest pile of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data comes confirmation of the extent to which the coronavirus lockdown impacted the economy and construction. For the three months to May, the UK economy contracted by a record 19.1%. Not surprisingly, the main hit was in April, when gross domestic product (GDP) registered a 20.4% fall in the single month. But, even as lockdown restrictions began to be lifted in May, the economy only regained 1.8%. Expectations were for over 5% growth.

In previous recessions, construction output has fallen three times more than GDP on average. This time, the nature of the enforced shutdown that widely affected retail, hospitality, and education meant that the services sector accounted for 15 percentage points of that 19.1% drop in GDP.

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