Housebuilding drives UK construction sector growth in September

Companies created jobs for the 28th month running and in September they hired new staff at the fastest pace for three months

A big pick-up in housebuilding helped the UK's construction sector enjoy its fastest growth for seven months in September and boosted job creation, according to a survey.

All parts of the industry from civil engineering to housebuilders saw output rise in September. That lifted the key measure of business activity for the whole construction sector to 59.9 from 57.3 in August, the latest Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI showed.