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Clients handed out nearly £3.8bn worth of work in October – a fall of almost £600m from the previous month, according to the latest data from Glenigan.

The figures (see below) reveal that the most work was awarded in the private housing sector, with firms here inking deals worth just over £653m – or around 17% of all work awarded in the month.

Wates’ £202³¾ deal to build Oxford university’s new life and mind building was the highest value deal to be struck in October.

The top client in this sector was The High Street Group which handed North-east contractor Tolent a £120³¾ contract to build its Strawberry Place development in Newcastle, comprising 305 residential units and 12,000sq m of office space. Construction is due to last 20 months and start next June.

The next most prolific sector was education, with clients in this sector awarding firms £577.7m of work.

This was followed by those in the civil infrastructure sector, at £546.7m, and clients working in social housing at £452.2m.

Meanwhile, the data has also revealed that £5.97bn worth of projects were approved in October, down from £9.48bn of projects in September.

The private housing sector was the market with the most approvals, securing permission for 329 schemes worth £1.9bn.

In private housing, Bellway, Barratt and Persimmon secured approval for the most schemes, with each firm given the go-ahead on four projects.

They were followed by Countryside and Wates who got approval to push ahead with three developments. This does not include projects that are being developed as joint ventures.

After private residential, industrial clients achieved the second-highest value of approvals at £825m.

* private housing awards data refers to external contracts only and does not include frameworks

** projects awarded by a joint venture are listed independently to both single party clients