Slump in new homes in UK

Growth in construction of new homes in Britain ebbed to its lowest level in three years in March, according to a survey yesterday that showed the overall expansion in the building trade held at its weakest in nearly a year.

The Markit-CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index — PMI — held steady at 54.2 in March, matching February’s 10-month low and holding a whisker above a consensus forecast for 54.0 in a Reuters poll of economists.

While the pace of growth picked up in commercial property and civil engineering, the PMI’s gauge of housing construction activity sank to its lowest level since January 2013, before Britain’s economic recovery really started to take hold.