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Tag: ONS

Has the Government found a cure for the disease afflicting the housing market?

Has the Government found a cure for the disease afflicting the housing market?

The short answer to the question in the headline is no. The slightly longer answer requires a question: It depends what you mean by the housing market? But, as that sounds like obfuscation, the most honest answer I can come up with is that while the housing market may appear to be in remission the disease is spreading. I say this because we’ve had such a welter of “good news” on the housing front recently that you’d could be forgiven…

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A good quarter in a bad half for construction

A good quarter in a bad half for construction

Construction output rose 1.4% in the second quarter of this year compared with the first, according to the latest ONS data. You might think: “Whoopee here we go!” But we’d have hoped for, if not expected, some bounce back after the first quarter of the year came in at its lowest level for a single quarter for more than a decade. If we compare the first half of this year with the final half of last the numbers suggest the…

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Is it time for housing policy to pay more heed to the costs and the benefits of location?

Is it time for housing policy to pay more heed to the costs and the benefits of location?

Location, location, location. They may be the oldest three rules in the property world. But do we need to take those rules more seriously in housing policy? When I owned a flat in Islington, London, in the 1990s I was surprised just how little the insurance cover was for the building relative to the potential sale price. It covered little more than the value of any one of the four flats into which the building was divided. Even back then…

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Signs of stability in construction activity, but recovery looks a way off yet

Signs of stability in construction activity, but recovery looks a way off yet

The latest monthly construction output figures from the Office for National Statistics provided little extra insight into either the travails of or the prospects for the industry, other than to hint that the rate of decline may be easing. Looking at the graph we can see a teasing turn in the downward trend in the 12-month total of construction output of late. And certainly there appear to be no shocks in the data when examining the finer details at sector level….

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It’s worrying that we are losing construction jobs. But equally disturbing is the loss of capacity

It’s worrying that we are losing construction jobs. But equally disturbing is the loss of capacity

The latest ONS labour market figures showing workforce jobs in construction pretty much mirror expectations with a drop of 53,000 from the 2012 Q1 to 2013 Q1. This is pretty much in line with the employment figures published last month which showed a fall of 41,000 over the same period. Interestingly the brunt of the more recent losses appears to have been taken by the self-employed, which had been significantly less impacted through most of the recessionary period since 2008….

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Latest new orders figures provide little to be cheery about

Latest new orders figures provide little to be cheery about

The latest construction new orders figures from the Office for National Statistics provide little comfort for an industry seemingly trapped in a long running slump. Look through the volatility and we see a new stability, so things don’t appear to be getting much worse. But the level of new orders won is running at about two thirds of peak. What makes this disturbing is that it the volume of orders being won has been about the same level for the…

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Why jobs in construction are increasingly valuable for the UK and should be nurtured

Why jobs in construction are increasingly valuable for the UK and should be nurtured

A few weeks ago I received a request from Dan Earley a quantity surveying student asking for a comment on training and development within the construction industry. I was delighted to help, in part because it prompted me to write some words that had been sitting in my head for some while. I had meant to post the comment on this blog, but it slipped from my memory and down the pile in the guilt tray. Yesterday’s fantastic ONS release…

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Punch drunk construction finds a prop in rich investors in London housing

Punch drunk construction finds a prop in rich investors in London housing

Yes folks the construction industry is partying like it was 1999. Sounds like fun, but sadly it means that all the growth achieved this century has been wiped out. And while we metaphorically vomit into the punch bowl, here’s a thought to sober us up. If it wasn’t for rich foreign and indeed rich British investors pumping cash into London residential property the construction industry would probably be closing in on a drop of nearer to a quarter from peak…

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Today’s GDP figures and why I think Government remains totally wrong on construction

Today’s GDP figures and why I think Government remains totally wrong on construction

The GDP data provided the Chancellor George Osborne with solace. The 0.3% quarterly rise allowed him to suggest the figures provided evidence that the economy is healing. Had the figures shown a decline he would have been fending off a huge amount of flak. That’s politics. But the figures mean little in the grand scheme of things unless they work some magic on the animal spirits within the economy. The economy is probably rising very gently, but far too slowly…

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Construction forecasts shaded up, but still predict recession dragging on into 2014

Construction forecasts shaded up, but still predict recession dragging on into 2014

The main industry forecasters have revised up their expectations for the future path of construction output. The revisions from the previous forecast three months or so ago suggest there will be an extra one billion or so pounds worth of work flowing into construction this year than previously expected. Part of this is statistical, as the latest Office for National Statistics data puts the fall in 2012 at less than first thought. But, even so, the forecasters have slightly shaded…

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