Home / Insights / UK Construction Market Reports / Construction Market Report Q3 2026 Construction Market Report Q3 2026 Welcome to our Q3 2026 construction market report. This edition reflects on key developments across the construction sector, drawing on data from projects published and awarded through our Marketplace (part of the Once For All platform) during the last quarter (1st July – 30th September 2026). We’ve also included insights from our Tender Management tool, where main contractors publish exclusive live opportunities for our members to find and tender for, on Once For All Marketplace. Use this report to stay informed about market trends and gain the insights you need to make confident, strategic decisions about growing your business, no matter your trade. Don’t forget to complete the form to get these updates straight in your inbox. What happened in 2026 Q3 in the construction market? At first glance, the drop in both the number of projects published and their overall value since Q2 may seem concerning, but it comes as little surprise following the high volume of significant frameworks released in the last quarter. The good news is that work is expected to steadily filter through over the coming years. In the meantime, projects continue to be published on the Once For All platform and Opportunities Board, including exclusive work packages you won’t find anywhere else. Let’s take a closer look at the construction data for Q3 2026… Watch our Q3 construction market report summary Q3 published projects More frameworks were published in Q3 2026, although still far behind Q2. There is a drop making up nearly 1% of the value that was published in Q2 (£1.3 trillion), now at £11.8 billion. By sector Housing – 163 projects, £5.6 billion Education – 100 projects, £1.318 billion Health & Welfare – 65 projects, £428 million Several frameworks bump up the value for Housing, including a £240 million new build housing opportunity (Esh Construction Ltd bidding) in Newcastle, meanwhile the Health & Welfare category saw a £90 million new build hospital (Bowmer & Kirkland, and McLaughlin & Harvey bidding) opportunity published. Even though there are fewer projects under our ‘Miscellaneous’ category, £2.2 billion worth of projects were published, including a new prison in Glasgow (also awarded in Q3) and a £64 million mixed use new build development (Higgins Partnerships, and Mulalley & Co Ltd bidding) for London Borough of Haringey covering residential and workspace purposes. By location London – 123 projects, £2.3 billion Wales – 47 projects, £2.65 billion North West – 45 projects, £766 million Following past trends, England’s capital leads with the most projects published, but is slightly behind Wales in terms of total project value at £2.65 billion (£300 million more than London). Top projects published near London include new build schools in Essex (DfE opportunities with Bowmer & Kirkland bidding). Besides frameworks, Wales saw a £69 million opportunity published for a new spectator stand for Wrexham AFC (McLaren Construction) – the team owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney! Scotland still comes out towards the top, with 2 fewer projects than the North West, but an impressive £1.2 billion in project value! This includes a new £130 million Center Parcs opportunity (Farrans Construction bidding) in Hawick. What happened in Q3 for published projects? More frameworks! Indicating secured work coming down the pipeline from main contractors such as Codi Group in Wales, and main contractors bidding on high-value projects in Scotland (Center Parcs) and for new build schools from the Department for Education in Essex (including Bowmer & Kirkland). 2026 Q2 vs Q3 published projects The number of projects published has fallen by 32% since Q2, dropping from 817 to 550. Project value has followed a similar downward trajectory, though this comes as little surprise, given the significant drop in the value of published frameworks, which decreased from £1.3 trillion in Q2 to £11.8 billion in Q3, where very few frameworks were published between July and September 2026. 2026 Q3 vs 2025 Q3 published projects The difference of a year shows a drop overall in projects published on our platform. Work is still coming down the pipeline, although there is a 15.9% drop from 654 projects in Q3 2025, to 550 projects by Q3 2026. The project value tells a similar story: Q3 2025 boasted project value of £25 billion, whereas a year on, value comes to just over £11.82 billion: a 52% drop. Despite this, the publication of recent frameworks in Q2 and Q3 this year indicates value will trickle down in the years to come as these become live. Q3 awarded projects Exciting opportunities are emerging across the industry. Here’s a roundup of the latest contract awards, highlighting the main contractors who have secured work and will soon be looking to partner with subcontractors… By sector Housing – 111 projects, £2.369 billion Miscellaneous – 21 projects, £1.6 billion Education – 72 projects, £1.2 billion Miscellaneous for Q3 2026 includes opportunities ranging across new builds, including HMP Glasgow, a £229 million new build opportunities in Westminster (with McLaren Construction) and a £210 million new build military establishment in Staffordshire (with Bovis Construction). By location London – 107 projects, £1.79 billion Scotland – 28 projects, £1 billion North West – 12 projects, £844 million New builds dominate awarded opportunities, including a new £46 million school in Stockport (with Willmott Dixon Group), an £80 million new build housing tender from Redbridge London Borough Council (with HG Construction), as well as a £65 million extension at Edinburgh Airport (with Balfour Beatty). 2026 Q2 vs Q3 awarded projects Sector awards for Q3 follow the same pattern as Q2, across housing, miscellaneous and education. London and Scotland also appear by top awards by location, this time accompanied by the North West compared to Wales in Q2 2026. 2026 Q3 vs 2025 Q3 awarded projects There has been a drop in the number of projects being awarded since Q3 last year (-14.55%), however the average project value has increased by more than double, from £9.34m (Q3 ‘25) to £20.93m (Q3 ‘26): a similar to trend as was uncovered in our 2026 Construction Market Index Report. Top main contractor awards Q3 2026 Top main contractor awards for this quarter encourages an interesting discussion, where we usually display the top awards by total project value, we thought it’d be worth highlighting the number of total projects awarded too, as each paints a slightly different picture amongst some of the highest players. Top 10 main contractors by total number of projects awarded Main Contractor Total Value Total projects Morgan Lovell PLC £614,748,000.00 43 HILL PARTNERSHIPS LIMITED £686,900,000.00 16 Etec Contract Services Ltd £15,222,000.00 11 Alexander James Contracts Ltd £48,692,000.00 8 Tilbury Douglas Construction Limited £117,300,000.00 7 Quinn (London) Limited £38,900,000.00 7 Kingerlee Ltd £13,105,000.00 6 JOHN GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION LIMITED £942,000,000.00 5 Higgins Partnerships 1961 PLC £178,000,000.00 5 Willmott Dixon Group £136,295,500.00 5 Morgan Lovell and Hill Partnerships lead the way across 59 projects for Q3, with over £1.2 billion in project awards between them. Notable awards include: New Build awards across the private and public sector, including a £97m award for London Borough of Haringey and a £75m award for Populo Living for housing in London (Hill Partnerships) Fitting out opportunities across London and Surrey, including a £21m opportunity for Pollen Estate Trust (Morgan Lovell) Top 10 main contractors by total project value awarded Main Contractor Total Value Total projects JOHN GRAHAM CONSTRUCTION LIMITED £942,000,000.00 5 KIER CONSTRUCTION LIMITED £934,000,000.00 4 HILL PARTNERSHIPS LIMITED £686,900,000.00 16 Morgan Lovell PLC £614,748,000.00 43 MCLAREN CONSTRUCTION LIMITED £428,300,000.00 4 Bovis Construction ( Europe) Limited £210,000,000.00 1 McLaughlin & Harvey Limited £190,000,000.00 3 John Paul Construction Ltd £190,000,000.00 1 Higgins Partnerships 1961 PLC £178,000,000.00 5 HG Construction Ltd £161,800,000.00 3 However when we look at the total project value, John Graham Construction and Kier come out top at neatly £1 billion each! Despite the value, this is only across 5 and 4 projects (respectively) indicating some large, high-value projects in the pipeline, including: £400m new build student accommodation for the University of Manchester university and a £286m new student block for Manchester Metropolitan University (John Graham Construction) £770m new build prison for HMP Glasgow (Kier Construction) With figures like this, it’s encouraging to see work coming down the line for subcontractors, where some of those work packages could be published as opportunities on our Marketplace in future… Live opportunities and work packages on Tender Management If you’re a subcontractor looking to grow your construction pipeline, our Opportunities Board on Once For All Marketplace is the place to start. Main contractors post work packages directly to the board, and subcontractor members with optimised profiles are notified when they’ve been matched to an opportunity or invited to tender. From there, submitting your pricing is straightforward, giving you a better chance of landing your next job. Take a look at the most requested work packages on our platform for Q3, along with where they’re being published across the UK, along with a comparison to last year’s Q3 figures… Which work categories were most popular in Q3 2026? Work package type Number of packages Floor 357 Door 346 Electrical 335 Roof 262 Fire 221 Steel 160 Mechanical 159 Scaffold 150 Ground 136 Protection 135 Light 123 Partition 123 Decoration 119 Paint 118 Landscape 110 Survey 109 Insulation 104 Demolition 99 Joinery 97 Metal 97 Tender Management figures: Q2 2026 vs Q3 2026 Tender activity rose quarter-on-quarter, although volume is spread across fewer main contractors, however, these numbers are still greater compared to 2025 Q3… Q2 2026 Q3 2026 Change Work packages published 9,284 9,738 +4.9% Direct tenders sent 50,000 58,000 +16% Average direct tenders per month 16,667 19,333 +16% Unique main contractors who published work packages 194 178 -8.2% Tender Management figures: Q3 2025 vs Q3 2026 Work package publications and direct tenders (invitations to tender) have increased since last year on the platform across the board! This means main contractors are publishing more opportunities on our platform and need subcontractors to fulfil their needs. Q3 2025 Q3 2026 Work packages published 7,947 9,738 Direct tenders sent 43,749 58,000 Average direct tenders per month 14,583 19,333 Main contractors who published work packages 119 178 Since Q3 last year, the number of work packages have increased by 22.5 %, from 7,947 (Q3 25) to 9,739 (Q3 26), along with a 32% increase in direct tenders sent, now at 58,000 for Q3 2026. Even more main contractors are publishing work packages through Tender Management, with 59 more names active and looking for subcontractors to work with. Q3 2026: Top 10 work package locations London (Greater London, Westminster) Stafford Derby Surrey Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway Birmingham Keighley Edinburgh Leeds Key takeaways: what does this mean for the construction industry? While the figures may appear slightly lower than Q2, construction activity remains strong, main contractors are continuing to win work and submit bids. Looking ahead, a number of high-value projects are on the horizon. Subcontractors would be well advised to keep a close eye on upcoming tender opportunities published on platforms such as our Marketplace. Published projects Although the number of projects published on the platform dipped in Q3 2026, opportunities remain as the housing sector continues to dominate, consistent with the findings of our 2026 Construction Marketplace Index Report. Looking ahead, the emergence of frameworks in Q2 signals that main contractors will soon be actively seeking subcontractors, pointing to a stronger pipeline of opportunities on the horizon. Awarded projects Growth went beyond London, usually the leader for awarded projects, extending to Wales, Scotland and the North West. Tender Management Floor, Door, Electrical and Roof work packages are some of the most popular ones published to our Opportunities Board, appearing yet again for this quarter, along with Fire. If you work in this space and aren’t yet signed up to Constructionline, you may want to consider one of our memberships… Next steps: find relevant construction opportunities on Marketplace Now that you’re armed with the latest insights into the construction market, you can start identifying where projects are being published — and pinpoint the highest-value opportunities worth targeting. Ready to go deeper? Log in to Market Intelligence to plan and build your business pipeline with confidence. Use our platform data to connect with main contractors and stay ahead of their upcoming projects. Don’t have an account? Sign up for a Constructionline membership today. As a member, you’ll also gain access to: 500,000+ opportunities across the public and private sectors, including planning applications Marketplace Live events held across the UK, where you can network with main contractors face-to-face Exclusive partner discounts through Once For All Perks Liked this Q3 Construction Market Report? Sign up for more insights like this – straight to your inbox, each quarter. Sign up for Marketplace For just £599 a year, unlock exclusive construction tenders and main contractor details Sign up What happened in Q2 2026? Take a look at the last quarter and see what happened in the construction market… Read Q2 report Want to become a Market Intelligence wizard? 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