The quarterly Barclays start up figures showed the highest number of new construction businesses since the bank began looking at individual sectors in 2003.

Along with London and South East England, Welsh building start ups were the highest in the UK, rising by more than 10%.

Overall, Welsh business start-ups were 13% lower in the first three months of the year than they were in the same period in 2006, while construction start ups increased by 12.5%, icWales reported.

There were 17,500 people nationally who started a construction-related business in the first three months of the year.