A fall in housebuilding ahead of the EU referendum has halted construction sector in May as firms mothballed projects and delayed new work.
Housing construction fell 3.2% during the month the biggest drop since February 2014.
The UK’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt, said it could reduce the rate at which it builds new homes as the company prepares for a slowdown following the vote to leave the EU.
Housing output has now fallen in every month this year apart from February, the market could slow further after the 23 June Brexit vote.
The latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, found that buyer interest and expectations of future sales withered post-referendum.
“The fall in May 2016, taken together with the strength of April’s figures, continues a longer trend of broadly flat output growth since the start of 2015,” the ONS said.
“Within all new work, there were decreases in all work types, except infrastructure. The main contribution to the decrease came from private new housing.”
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