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Clients handed out nearly £4.2bn worth of work in January – a decrease of almost £4bn from the previous month, according to the latest data from Glenigan.

The figures (see below) reveal the most work was awarded in the private housing sector, with firms here inking deals worth just over £957m – or around 23% of all work awarded in the month.

The top spending client was the Department for Transport, which handed out two deals worth £252³¾, followed by the health department, which awarded 24 projects worth £185m.

The next most prolific sector was infrastructure, with clients here awarding firms £662m of business.

This was followed by those in the education sector, at £485m, and social housing clients awarding £441m worth of work.

Meanwhile, the data has also revealed that £5.62bn worth of projects were approved in January.

The private housing sector was the market with the most approvals, securing permission for 269 schemes worth almost £1.5bn.

In private housing, Redrow and Persimmon secured approval for the most schemes, with the pair each given the go-ahead for four projects.

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

After private residential, commercial achieved the second-highest value of approvals at £830m.

* 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