The latest official labour market figures show a drop of 66,000 in the number of construction workforce jobs over the year to June. On the face of it, though, there appears to be a bit of promise with the number of jobs holding up well in the second quarter compared with the first quarter figure of 2,095,000. Admittedly this was revised down by 20,000 from the number in the previous release. This number of jobs, by the way, is comparable with…
The housing market survey released today by the surveyors’ body RICS adds to other recently released data that all seems to points to a slide in prices everywhere except London – which in housing terms is another country. The RICS data show a negative balance of 23% of those questioned suggesting prices were falling rather over the past three months above those that saw prices rising. This fits with most other house price indicies which suggest that prices are tracking…
Sometimes I find I get a better perspective on things imagining how they might be viewed from the future. So here’s me looking back (yes, with anger) from 2020 at our current efforts to get houses built. I’m nine years older watching TV with growing irritation. The story strap under the newscaster reads: “Housing Crisis Report: Why we need three million more homes” The picture skips to the housing minister being quizzed by the station’s business editor. “This report, released today, puts the housing…
There was good news in today’s release of the latest GB construction output figures. The data was revised to show the second quarter growth rate at 1.1% rather than the 0.5% published a month ago. But for most in the construction industry it may be all a bit academic how we reinterpret the past. What matters more is what just happened and what does that tell us about what is going to happen. On this score the figures appear on…
The battle over planning between the build-more-homes lobby and the forces for countryside conservation is extremely important. It will define, at least in part, where people can live and what our treasured land looks like in the future. It is essential that we have a planning system that efficiently, effectively and more importantly fairly balances the conflicts between development and conservation. But right now the debate over planning is a massive distraction from the real and immediate issue – money. There…
There are times when you hope you’re misreading data or that there may be an error. But it doesn’t look as though these crutches are available as I stare at the carnage implicit in the new orders data. The index, which represents a seasonally-adjusted price-adjusted measure of orders taken by contractors for new work has hit a record low. It stands at 57.5 for the second quarter of this year. Five years ago it stood at almost double that. (see…
I’ve been quizzed a bit in recent hours for my views on the residential planning system in the light of the reported drop in planning permissions. One graph that might prove interesting is one I have on file which tracks the figures from the communities department. It shows the number of decisions made within 13 weeks and the proportion of applications approved for major residential schemes. These are schemes of 10 or more homes. It is silly to read too much…
Construction plant hire prices remained subdued in the second quarter of this year showing no sign of growth after the mini spike in prices recorded late last year, according to the latest services producer prices index. This puts prices down on the same time a year ago by about 0.6% in cash terms and leaves prices more than 8% lower than at the peak in 2006. With cost increases squeezing most if not all businesses, this suggests margins will remain…
The latest CLG house building figures for the second quarter of this year seem to be consistent with the view that activity is settling down to a new post-recession lower level. Much has been and is made of the jumps up and down each quarter in the starts and completions figures. But this volatility should be and should have been expected. No more significance should be given to the latest drop in starts than to the buoyancy in the numbers in…
The Office for National Statistics has come in for yet another beating over the construction figures, this time receiving a stern letter of criticism from the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Michael Scholar. I for one am hopeful that this might prompt a full-scale investigation of the construction output stats, which goes beyond the fact that someone got their sums wrong.