Output from the Scottish construction industry reached a record high last year on £14.5 billion, according to new statistics.

Full year figures for 2015 published by the Office of National Statistics today show the output compares to a previous record of just over £14bn over the 12 months to September 2015.

Commenting on the new figures, Scottish Building Federation managing director, Vaughan Hart, said: “Today’s figures reinforce previous trends with record levels of output being driven by an infrastructure sector that contributed more than £4bn of output to the industry last year – that’s 28 per cent of the industry’s total output over the year.

“Other key sectors such as housing and private commercial are continuing to show steady improvement but remain substantially below their pre-recession peak. Hence, the private commercial sector contributed £2.4bn of output last year compared to more than £3bn of output in 2007. Housing output last year was £2.3bn compared to pre-recession output of more than £3bn in 2005.

“Major projects such as the Queensferry Crossing will conclude later this year and Scotland’s capital budget remains under significant pressure. Levels of industry employment are still far below where they were prior to the recession despite record levels of output. Against that backdrop, there is still work to be done to secure sustainable long-term growth in the Scottish construction industry – not least by re-establishing the important link between output and employment within the sector.”

Vaughan Hart added: “We look forward to debating issues such as these at our special Scottish Building question time event with Holyrood election candidates in central Glasgow next week.”