Total construction contract value reached £5.5bn in November, falling back to August levels after a strong October.

The residential sector was the best performer with £2.1bn worth of contracts, with 79% of that consisting of private housing investment.

London and the North East were revealed to be the best performing areas.

Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: “The number of construction projects in November were at the lowest point since December 2015, but the total contract value remained stable in comparison to the rest of 2016, indicating that larger projects are still being commissioned, making up for the lack of overall contracts.

“When comparing October and November to last year’s figures, the industry is vastly behind where it was at that time, with anxiety over Brexit and future political decisions the most likely probable cause for the drop off.

“The industry is still relying heavily on the residential sector to bring in a large proportion of contract value, putting too much reliance on the sector to perform month after month. 

“Other major sectors such as infrastructure and commercial and retail will need to see an increase in construction contracts and value if construction is to have a positive turnaround in 2017.”