Despite only 1% projected GDP growth in 2025, the UK government is increasing capital investment in key public services. The Chancellor’s Spring Statement pledged a 13% rise in departmental capital budgets for 2025/26, with health, housing, and education among the top beneficiaries. Simultaneously, global volatility — particularly new US tariffs on UK construction product exports — is reshaping supply dynamics and intensifying material sourcing pressures.
This duality places sustainability at the heart of risk mitigation and market differentiation. Manufacturers that can offer low-embodied carbon products with third-party verified environmental data will be best positioned to retain market access and secure early specification.
The residential market is contracting in volume, with project starts down 19% and planning approvals dropping 39% year-on-year. Yet the government’s £2bn commitment to building 18,000 new homes is a call to action — particularly for suppliers and consultants offering verified low-carbon housing solutions, social housing typologies, or modular and offsite construction.
Project pipelines may be slim now, but strategic investments in carbon benchmarking, MMC integration, and whole-life carbon modeling are critical if the sector is to deliver on both affordability and environmental performance.
Industrial construction surged in early 2025, with project starts up 66% year-on-year and warehousing accounting for 62% of activity. This growth is propelled by demand for supply chain resilience and e-commerce fulfilment, but also creates significant embodied emissions due to the material intensity of these assets.
Sustainability consultants, structural engineers, and envelope designers have a role to play in reducing whole-life carbon through material substitution, circular design principles, and passive performance strategies. In regions like the East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber, aligning low-carbon materials with regional growth hotspots will be essential.
The office sector grew 28% in project starts, driven by large-scale data center developments. These facilities are energy-intensive by design, and while operational emissions often dominate discussions, the embodied impact of the construction phase is considerable.
With data centers representing a growing portion of office projects, there's a pressing need for early carbon modeling, low-carbon concrete and steel alternatives, and product-level data to inform procurement decisions. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) tools and carbon-verified digital design workflows will help clients meet sustainability KPIs.
Civil engineering starts are down 51%, but detailed planning approvals jumped 110%. Major schemes like the £10.2bn Lower Thames Crossing and water sector capital programmes signal a future wave of work — offering long lead times for carbon planning.
PAS 2080-aligned infrastructure delivery, carbon forecasting, and supplier decarbonization strategies will be essential to meeting not just project goals, but national net-zero commitments. Consultants and contractors have a rare chance to align capital works with systemic carbon reduction from design through operation.
As the construction market pivots towards major public-sector and infrastructure projects, the demand for transparent, measurable sustainability is growing. One Click LCA enables manufacturers, consultants, and contractors to calculate and optimize embodied carbon, generate EPDs, and deliver whole-life carbon assessments that meet regulatory and client expectations.
Whether you’re working to secure specification with environmental product declarations (EPD), respond to PAS 2080, meet GLA planning requirements, or streamline life-cycle assessments (LCA), One Click LCA offers the tools to act on sustainability — confidently, credibly, and at scale.
Learn more at oneclicklca.com