Housebuilding growth slowed to its lowest level in a year in October in a sign that the property market is continuing to cool.
The latest reading for the Markit/CIPS survey on construction activity fell to a five-month low of 61.4 from 64.2 in September, with housing seeing the sharpest slowdown in expansion and commercial and civil engineering activity also weaker.
The index remains well above 50, which denotes growth, but new business gains last month also fell to their lowest level since May.
Markit senior economist Tim Moore said: "October's survey provides the first indication that the chill winds blowing across the UK housing market have started to weigh on the booming residential building sector."
Construction accounts for around 6% of the UK economy.
Recent data has shown house prices and mortgage approvals have slowed since the introduction of mortgage affordability checks for borrowers and tighter curbs for lenders from the Bank of England earlier this year.wage growth at 0.7%.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article