Construction slump - perfect storm
Statistics come out about the construction industry every week. And they always seem to be bad. But what do they really mean?
To try and answer this, and to get a bit of perspective, we've written a report that takes the long view.
How does the economic outlook today compare with the last ten years?
Here are a few of the headlines:
- Private sector construction collapsed after the credit crunch.
- But the public sector stepped in with a massive increase in spending, so overall the industry didn't fair too badly until the beginning of this year.
- Over the last 6-9 months however public sector funding has started to dry up.
- As a result, right now, total output is 9% lower than it was in 2002.
- If public sector cuts continue, the private sector will need to grow by more than a third of a billion pounds a quarter just to maintain current output.
- At the moment there are no signs that the private sector is growing.
Click on the link below to read the report:
The State of UK Construction: A Ten Year View.
Or download it as a PDF with bonus comments and possible solutions from David Trench:
File:The state of UK construction - Designing Buildings Wiki.pdf
See our suggestions for how to get construction back on track. Just click on the Discussion link at the top of this page.
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Comments
To start a discussion about this article, click 'Add a comment' above and add your thoughts to this discussion page.
Too many people believe the tap can be turned on and off easily and the full flow of employment and economic benefit will be quickly reached. This is not the case. Construction projects have a lead time that generally takes longer than the build period - new airport facilities (such as Terminal 5) take over a decade in planning and design.
So how should the government address these issues in order to galvanise the construction industry and stimulate the economy, beyond possible plans to ease planning laws and reduce enforced quotas for social housing?
Here are Designing Buildings Wiki’s top five solutions: