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Methodology
Methodology and sources
The Busy Busy Index collects published figures on UK trade wait times, skills shortages and construction demand into one place. We don't model or estimate anything ourselves. Each figure is copied from its source, with the date it was published and the date we checked it (10 November 2026).
How we label "busier, steady, quieter"
- Demand signals are labelled by the direction their publisher reports (for example, a PMI below 50, or a net balance that fell).
- Trades and regions get a trend only when a source gives a direction for that trade or area. Otherwise we say "No trend data yet" rather than guess.
- The homepage count simply adds up the signal labels. It isn't a weighted index.
What we leave out
- Yolist figures, which Yolist labels as 'sample' data, are excluded.
- Any figure we couldn't open and read at its source.
Known conflicts and gaps
- CPA 2027 total output: the press release says +0.4%; Building Products Today (via FIS) reports -0.4%. We use the press release.
- No verified wait-time figures by region for individual trades.
- No verified wait or trend data for plasterers, tilers, landscapers or gas engineers specifically.
- ONS Q3 2026 new orders are due 12 November 2026.
- Insolvency Service October 2026 figures not yet published.
- No FMB H1 2026 figure found for Northern Ireland; English regional FMB data is in the members-only full report.
Sources (28)
| Source | Published | What it measures | Caveats | Figures used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Trade Wait-Time Index 2026 TradeMatch UK | 21 Apr 2026 | 18,400 lead-to-job-start cycles on the TradeMatch platform, Q3 2025 to Q1 2026. Median gap between first quote accepted and tradesperson starting on site. | Data from one lead-generation marketplace with a commercial interest in the topic; not a random sample of all UK jobs. National only, no regional split published. | 24 |
| Shortage of tradespeople is impacting UK homeowners, study finds Fix Radio (reporting a Markel Direct survey) | 15 Jul 2025 | Markel Direct survey of 1,187 UK homeowners (Censuswide). Average wait for a tradesperson to fix an urgent issue, by city. | Small per-city samples; urgent repairs only, not planned work. Survey fieldwork pre-dates July 2025. | 22 |
| Study reveals how the trades shortage is affecting the UK TradesmanInsure (reporting the same Markel Direct survey) | 14 Aug 2025 | Same Markel Direct survey as above. Used for the Norwich figure, which is cut off on the Fix Radio page. | Secondary report of the Markel survey. | 1 |
| South West homeowners face seven-day waits for urgent repairs as tradie shortages continue to bite South West Connected (Fix Radio analysis of Markel Direct data) | 15 May 2026 | Fix Radio grouped Markel Direct's 17 city-level urgent-repair waits into UK nations and regions. | Regional averages are built from one to three cities each, so treat them as indicative. Same release syndicated on niconnected.co.uk and walesconnected.co.uk. | 13 |
| State of Trade Survey H2 2025 Federation of Master Builders and CIOB | 31 Mar 2026 | 493 SME construction firms, covering July to December 2025. Fieldwork 26 Jan to 20 Feb 2026. | Net balances are % reporting increase minus % reporting decrease, not % changes. | 18 |
| Nearly half of builders report job delays amid worsening skills drought, reveals survey Construction Management (CIOB) | 1 Apr 2026 | Reports FMB/CIOB State of Trade H2 2025. | 2 | |
| State of Trade H1 2026: skills, rising costs and AI adoption Federation of Master Builders and CIOB | 10 Nov 2026 | 416 SME building firms, covering January to June 2026, conducted by Barbour ABI. | Net balances, not % changes. | 9 |
| Scotland's builders buck UK slowdown as workloads soar, says FMB Federation of Master Builders | 10 Nov 2026 | Nation breakdown of FMB/CIOB State of Trade H1 2026. | Net balances. | 4 |
| Welsh builders busy now – but warning lights flash for 2027, says FMB Cymru Federation of Master Builders (FMB Cymru) | 10 Nov 2026 | Nation breakdown of FMB/CIOB State of Trade H1 2026. | Net balances. | 2 |
| Construction Workforce Outlook 2026-2030: United Kingdom (Labour Market Intelligence Report) CITB | 17 Jun 2026 | Oxford Economics model of output and workforce. 'Annual extra workers' covers growth plus replacement of leavers, 2026-2030 average. | A forecast of recruitment need, not a count of live vacancies. | 45 |
| Construction Workforce Outlook website chart data (xlsx, dated 2026.06.11) CITB | 17 Jun 2026 | Nation and English-region workforce (2025 actual, 2030 forecast) and extra recruitment as a % of the 2025 workforce. | In the 'Extra Recruitment value' table, the East Midlands and East of England counts appear swapped relative to the % table and workforce sizes, so we use only the % figures for English regions. | 41 |
| CITB publishes Construction Workforce Outlook 2026-2030 CITB | 17 Jun 2026 | Press release. | 0 | |
| Electrical skills gap deepens as apprenticeship starts fall despite surging demand Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) | 9 Feb 2026 | ECA 2026 Electrical Skills Index, England, 2024/25 academic year. | Trade body with a lobbying position. | 6 |
| NFRC welcomes earlier technical education pathways intention National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) | 28 Jul 2026 | Quotes NFRC State of the UK Roofing Industry report, Winter 2026 (Q1 2026). | Members-only survey. | 3 |
| Confidence and workloads fall for roofing contractors Construction News | 9 Jul 2026 | Reports NFRC Winter 2026 survey of 140 members, January to March 2026. | % of contractors reporting an increase, not net balances. | 5 |
| Workforce planning for clean heat: Where will the heat pump workforce come from? WPI Economics for The MCS Foundation, Aldersgate Group and others | Nov 2025 | Desk research plus employer survey. Installer counts as of October 2025, England. | Installer headcount is an estimate (contractors x 4.8). | 4 |
| Lay of the Land 2026 Report British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) | 16 Sep 2026 | BALI member survey, second edition. | Members only; measures how challenging recruitment is, not waits. | 2 |
| Explore careers: job profiles National Careers Service (GOV.UK) | not stated (live pages) | Average starter and experienced salary per job profile, England. | Broad national averages; self-employed day rates are not covered. | 28 |
| S&P Global UK Construction PMI, October 2026 news release S&P Global (UK Construction PMI, with CIPS) | 5 Nov 2026 | Monthly survey of construction purchasing managers, data collected 12-29 October 2026. Above 50 = growth on the month. | Measures breadth of change, not size. | 4 |
| Construction output in Great Britain: August 2026 Office for National Statistics | 15 Oct 2026 | Monthly business survey, chained volume, seasonally adjusted. | Next release 12 November 2026 (includes Q3 new orders). | 2 |
| Construction output in Great Britain: June 2026, new orders and Construction Output Price Indices, April to June 2026 Office for National Statistics | 13 Aug 2026 | Quarterly new orders, Great Britain. | Superseded for output by the August release; still the latest new-orders figure. | 1 |
| Company insolvencies, September 2026 The Insolvency Service (GOV.UK) | 20 Oct 2026 | Registered company insolvencies, England and Wales. | Construction figures below are from Table 1c as reported by BCIS; the GOV.UK summary does not list sectors. | 0 |
| Latest construction firm insolvency figures BCIS | 21 Oct 2026 | BCIS reading of Insolvency Service Company Insolvency Statistics September 2026, Tables 1c and 4b. | 3 | |
| RICS UK Construction Monitor Q3 2026 RICS | 5 Nov 2026 | Quarterly survey of chartered surveyors (884 responses per BCIS). Net balances. | UK-wide; no regional split in the press release. | 5 |
| Construction Outlook for 2027 Worsens Due to Rising Inflation Risks, Says CPA Construction Products Association (press release reproduced by Floorscape) | 26 Oct 2026 | CPA Autumn 2026 Construction Industry Forecasts (2026-2028). CPA's own listing: https://www.constructionproducts.org.uk/publications/economics/construction-industry-forecasts/ | One outlet (Building Products Today, via FIS) reports the 2027 total as -0.4%. The CPA press release text says a rise of 0.4%, which is what we use. Worth confirming with CPA. | 5 |
| Course category pages (prices inc VAT) Able Skills | live pages | Prices read from category listing pages. | Prices change; re-check before publishing. | 0 |
| Electrical course bundles Trade Skills 4U | live page | Bundle prices as listed on page. | VAT treatment not stated next to prices. | 0 |
| New Entrants training courses Logic4training | live page | Lists new-entrant routes for plumber, gas engineer, electrician. | No prices shown on the page we checked. | 0 |
Download the data
datapoints.json (226 figures) · signals.json (23 signals) · sources.json · retraining.json. Free to reuse with a link back. Please also credit the original publisher.
Corrections
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