Repair and maintenance provided the main downward pressure on construction output, shrinking month-on-month by 1.8%.

But despite output shrinking in each of the first three months of the year, the quarter as a whole was still better than the last quarter of 2016.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, Q1 2017 was up 0.2% on Q4 2016.

According to the ONS, this healthier rolling three-month figure provides “a more comprehensive picture of the underlying trends within the construction industry”.

December 2016 was a one-off historically high month – a statistical blip – that the next three months did not keep up with.

New housing experienced strong growth in March, increasing month-on-month by 3.8%; month-on-year by 5.4%; and quarter-on-quarter by 0.2%.

And in comparison with the same period in 2016, construction output grew by 2.4% in March 2017, representing the 12th consecutive period of year-on-year growth.

ISO 20 400 has been in development since 2013 involving organisations from 40 countries. By implementing the standard and completing the assessment, Balfour Beatty has demonstrated that it has a sustainable procurement strategy in place.

Aaron Reid, head of sustainable procurement at Balfour Beatty, said: “We are extremely proud to be the first company in the world assessed against ISO 20400. The standard gives us a clear framework to determine ‘what good looks like’ in terms of sustainable procurement and how we compare against it.

“The assessment itself was robust, practical and coherent. It held a mirror up to us as a business, enabling us to uncover areas of existing good practice to be shared and areas for improvement to focus upon.”

Shaun McCarthy, director of Action Sustainability and chair of the Supply Chain School, said: “Societal expectations for supply chains to minimise impact on the environment and respect human rights are at a tipping point. In response, ISO 20 400 sets out a strategic framework for achieving sustainability and value for organisations competing in a global market. Procurement professionals and their stakeholders need to step up to this sustainability challenge and the standard provides a global framework for doing so.”

He said that Balfour Beatty was leading the way on the issue worldwide.

London saw 3.9 million sq ft (362,000 m²) of new office space completed in the last six months, delivering the largest volume of office space in central London for 13 years.

The London Office Crane Survey, published by Deloitte Real Estate, has recorded 28 new construction starts over six months, compared to 40 in the previous survey. In terms of volume, this adds 3.2 million sq ft into the development pipeline, a rise of 13%.  Despite this, the total office space currently under construction across the capital is now 13.9 million sq ft, a 6% decrease from the previous survey (14.8 million sq ft).

Nigel Shilton, managing partner at Deloitte Real Estate, said: “The decrease in overall volume of space under construction could suggest that developers have slowed down, yet this is more a result of timing and two years of elevated levels of construction completing rather than developers holding off. Demolition levels remain high at 7.9 million sq ft, which chimes with the sentiment of our surveyed contractors who expect a rise in workload over the coming 12 months. Looking at the development pipeline, we forecast around 39 million sq ft to be delivered by 2021. Very few schemes have been cancelled, highlighting continuing developer confidence.”

Shaun Dawson, author of the London Office Crane Survey at Deloitte, said: “The sheer volume of completed space is no surprise given the surge in development activity 18 months ago. In total 4.4 million sq ft completed in 2016 and this momentum has continued into 2017, we expect this year’s annual total delivery to be the highest since 2003.”

The City continues to dominate development activity with 10 new schemes totalling 1.9 million sq ft taking the City’s construction pipeline to 8.2 million sq ft. This represents a 7% decrease, but comes on the back of a number of large schemes having completed in the last six months.

The largest decrease in construction activity was recorded in the West End, down 27% in six months. This is notwithstanding the addition of nearly half a million sq ft across eight schemes starting construction.  Other markets remain active with Midtown and Southbank’s development activity increasing by 9% and 6% respectively.

Occupier demand remains resilient, Deloitte said, with 43% (six million sq ft) of space currently under construction already let. Mr Dawson added: “Good quality new stock is attracting significant tenant demand with 10 of the new schemes starting construction already achieving leasing success and of the 3.9 million sq ft of completed space, half was pre-let. This early leasing activity has softened the impact the volume of space completing has on the market.”

It may have slipped under your radar that the finalists for the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize – the world’s second-biggest economics prize after Nobel’s version – were announced two weeks ago.