The Builders’ Conference Trade Association has reported steady progress for the construction industry for the last month, a continuation of the previous month’s figures.

The group’s Contracts League table for May this year collaborated data on nearly 700 new contract awards with a combined value of just under £4 billion won by almost 400 contractors, a figure that maintains the norm after the recession.

However, if we look at the data in more detail it is now clear that the industry is in a holding pattern as it is now usual for each of the top 10 firms in the Contracts League table to top the £100 million mark in the award of new contracts every month. Although in May only the top seven companies in the table passed that figure.

Laing O’Rourke claimed top spot, while Galliford Try came in second, with a combined 28 contracts between them. This relatively big amount of modestly valued contracts throws into some relief the absence of major landmark contracts in the current environment.

In terms of work being put out to tender, the statistics show a £4.5 billion fall on the monthly average from May 2015 to just £1.8 billion this year.

This has had a sizeable impact on the Contracts League table for the yearly rolling total, as the figure has decreased from the high of £56.6 billion at the end of December last year to £50.41 billion last month, which is a fall of more than 12%.

Despite this general trend, Laing O’Rourke emerged as the most successful contractor in last month’s table as the firm secured no fewer than nine contracts worth £207.7 million between them.

Among the nine contracts, one of the most crucial was the £76.2 million contract to construct a new 192 unit residential tower for London’s Imperial College in the White City Campus in North London.