The hotel, leisure and sport sectors look set to end 2014 on a positive note after construction contracts reached their highest level in more than two years, according to new research.

The value of hotel, leisure and sport construction contracts awarded totalled more than £574m in November, found figures published in the latest Economic and Construction Market Review from construction intelligent service provider Barbour ABI. The firm, which supplies construction data to the government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), reported that market activity reflected an 8.8 per cent increase on October 2014 and a 34.3 per cent leap on November 2013.

The report also showed that the sector accounted for 10 per cent of the total value of all UK construction contracts for the month, with 40 per cent of the figure coming from projects in London alone.

“It’s not surprising that London was the main location of activity in the sector this month,” said Barbour ABI lead economist Michael Dall, who described the overall picture as ‘hugely encouraging.’

“This (London boom) is largely due to the award of a £100m contract to develop a five-star hotel at the site of the Great Scotland Yard building in Whitehall, as well as a contract to develop the Artotel Hotel in Hoxton worth £40m."

The report noted that the large amount of high value hotel schemes reaching advanced planning stages in 2013 was now filtering through to contracts awarded, with a total of 210 projects containing hotels across the UK, worth £1.4bn, announced by the end of November.