Construction output growth slowed to 3 per cent in August 2020 following record monthly growth of 21.8 per cent in June and 17.2 per cent growth in July.

The latest ONS construction figures show August output was 10.8 per cent below figures in February this year, before the Covid-19 lockdown.

Construction output grew by a record 18.5 per cent in the three months to August 2020 compared with the previous three-month period, following 10 consecutive periods of decline.

The growth was driven by record three-month on three-month growth in both new work (17.5 per cent) and repair and maintenance (20.3 per cent).

Naismiths director Gareth Belsham says: “The construction industry as a whole has been brought down to earth with an almighty bump, but housebuilding is booming.

“The gravity-defying, record-smashing growth of June and July was always going to be a tough act to follow.

“Overall the August data is a serious misfire. Even the most cautious predictions expected more from the month than this, and the recovery is starting to look less v-shaped and more r-shaped.

“Total construction output is still nearly 11per cent adrift of its pre-Covid level and the boom seen at the start of 2020 might as well be years, not just months, ago.

“But while things remain bleak in much of the commercial property sector, the impact of Britain’s house price boom is re-energising residential construction.

“Housebuilders are racing to respond to surging demand, and new residential work spiked by £310m in August, far more than all the other subsectors combined. By contrast, new industrial work is still a punishing 40.9per cent down on its pre-pandemic level as subsectors within the construction industry start to head in opposite directions.