Comparisons between the nations and regions© Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd, 201131. The real terms decline in GVA from constructionactivities has been greatest in the North of England,in Wales and Northern Ireland, with an average fallof 16.6%. The regions in the South of England havedone much better, with a 3.7% average decline, butonly 2.5% across London and the South East. . The Midlands and the East of England have seensteeper falls than in the South but less extreme thanin the North of England. The construction sector inScotland has weathered the crisis well, but industryexperts have raised concerns over the underlyingtrends. . There is no obvious geographical pattern in thechanges in the numbers of FTE jobs in theconstruction industry across the regions and thereis little evidence of a relationship between themagnitudes of GVA declines and the declines inFTE jobs. . For example, while GVA in the North-East fell by23.4%, the fall in job numbers was more similar tothe 8.7% fall in GVA in the West Midlands. Similarly,the decline in GVA was similar in the West Midlandsand the East of England, but while the total numberof jobs plunged by 10.5% in the former, they fell byonly 1.7% in the latter. . GVA declined by 18.2% in Wales (the secondbiggest decline in the UK), while employment onlyfell by 5.5% (the third smallest decline). The biggestfall in the number of jobs was in the East Midlands,while in the South East, employment fell by just0.4%. . The share of regional GVA attributed to constructionis higher in the North of England and the Midlands(averaging 7.2%) than in the South of England(average of 5.8%). The unique structure ofLondon's economy accounts for the low share ofconstruction (4.1% compared to a UK average of6.4%). Construction accounted for the largest shareof regional GVA in the East of England.. The construction industry accounted for the largestshare of the workforce in the East of England(7.7%) and the smallest share in London (5.2%).

Comparisons between the nations and regions© Centre for Economics 32and Business Research Ltd, 2011. It can be noted that, especially in London and theSouth East, regions typically associated with highervalue-add activities tend to have a higher share ofworkforce jobs than of workplace GVA, suggestingconstruction is a relatively low value added activityin these regions. . The converse is true for most of the other UKregions; the construction share of workplace GVA islower than the construction share of workforce jobs,which indicates that construction is a relativelyhigher value added activity in these regions. . The differing preferences across the regions andnations for buying domestic inputs from within theregion/country, as opposed to from the rest of theUK, are reflected in the differences between theratios of regional multipliers to the UK constructionmultiplier.. The Government has been a key source of finaldemand for construction, with the 2010 growthrecovery in several regions being driven by publicsector demand. . The public sector accounted for a growingproportion of projects (including through PFI andPPP arrangements) starting on site between 2007and 2010, rising from 35% to 47% of projects byvalue. (See figure below.) As private sectorworkload declined, Government has broughtplanned investments forward. This has been mostevident in the North of England and the Midlands,which have had greatest exposure to declines inprivate housing and industrial building activities.Publicly funded projects as a proportion of regional starts 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% North East North West Yorkshire & The Humber East Midlands West Midlands East of England London South East South West Wales Scotland Northern Ireland 2007 2010 Source: Glenigan