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Tag: recession

Public sector job cuts and the housing market

Public sector job cuts and the housing market

There has been some rather unsettling data released over recent days for those who fear falling house prices. The latest Bank of England data showed seasonally adjusted mortgage lending falling by 10% in December to a level not seen since May 2009 when the housing market slumped. Nationwide’s house price index showed a further slight fall of 0.1% in January, which when other indicies are considered suggest prices are on a downward path. Meanwhile there are worrying signs of falling…

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Construction firms axe jobs ahead of double-dip downturn

Construction firms axe jobs ahead of double-dip downturn

The number of jobs in the construction industry fell by 17,000 in the third quarter of this year despite the continued swell in work resulting from the now fading effects of the economic stimulus. Indeed the rather lacklustre set of labour market figures released today may well be read by some as an early sign of momentum fading in the economy at large. Certainly the drop in construction job numbers will lead many to suspect that firms are already trimming…

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Latest output data suggests the stimulus-generated surge in construction might be over

Latest output data suggests the stimulus-generated surge in construction might be over

The latest monthly construction output figures suggest that the surge in work seen in the mid part of 2010 is beginning to fade. A significant pulling forward of public spending helped to underpin housing construction, to propel publicly funded work and engender more confidence in private sector construction work. This created a swell in construction activity, which has caused some kerfuffle among economists as it has been the main driver of overall growth in the economy – although recent revisions…

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RICS survey points heavily to a return to recession

RICS survey points heavily to a return to recession

Today’s construction survey released by the surveyors’ body RICS adds more weight to the fears that construction is set for a plunge back into recession, showing as it does that more surveyors are seeing workload falling than rising. Asked whether workload had increased or decreased on the previous quarter, the survey found a negative balance of 10% which follows on from a negative balance of 5% in the previous survey three months earlier. This suggests that workload is falling among…

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House building recovery stalls and a further fall can’t be ruled out

House building recovery stalls and a further fall can’t be ruled out

There is no way that you can look at the latest set of house building figures for England in the third quarter of this year and suggest they look good. Yes it is true that private sector housing completions were up for the second consecutive quarter as the press release points out, but they were lower by 4% than in the same quarter a year ago. Furthermore, the completions we see in the third quarter represent a view taken by…

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Construction growth continues to roar, but can you hear it?

Construction growth continues to roar, but can you hear it?

The UK economy grew twice as fast as the growth rate expected by experts, according to the latest preliminary estimate of gross domestic product. The GDP figure rose 0.8%, which is above trend growth and well above the 0.4% figure which was being touted as the average of the growth rates expected by experts. This suggests annual growth of 2.8%. A significant part of the recent growth spurt is down to the contribution that construction is thought to have had….

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It’s official – construction has never had it so good

It’s official – construction has never had it so good

Construction is booming and there was more construction work undertaken in Britain in the three months to August than in any quarter ever recorded – and that is after the statisticians revised down the figures for June and July by £400 million or so. No I am not dreaming. That is what the latest figures from the national statisticians at ONS suggest. According to the constant 2005 prices data in the latest figures there was £27,692 million of construction work…

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Latest stats pour cold water on construction growth prospects and house building

Latest stats pour cold water on construction growth prospects and house building

For those who read the latest output figures and cheerily saw an industry enjoying boom level growth in the second quarter, here is a bucket of cold water from the national statisticians at the ONS – the new orders figures. The fact that the orders figures are down is not totally unexpected. There was a clear and planned surge in public sector spending – some cynically suggesting that this was connected to the General Election in May. This surge was…

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A break in the clouds for construction’s smaller firms

A break in the clouds for construction’s smaller firms

For those looking for reasons to believe that the second quarter of this year provided some relative cheer, it may be worth taking in the surveys from the FMB, which represents local builders, and the NSCC, which represents specialists. We may not be talking about boom times, but both surveys reported a marked easing in the recessionary pressures that have dogged the smaller firms in construction for more than two years. You have to read through the data to get a…

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A last hurrah for construction before the axe falls

A last hurrah for construction before the axe falls

If you didn’t know what was coming, you could read the latest set of figures for construction orders and output as very promising indeed, with contractors both winning more work and doing more work in recent months. In constant prices, output in the three months to May was as strong as in any quarter since the third quarter of 2008 – you remember the quarter in which Lehman Brothers collapsed and the world’s financial markets went into convulsions. Certainly, after…

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