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Rigger

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Is there a bit of an upturn what are your views

personely I cannot see much growth and I think we are in for a couple more years of pain (article from "The Herald")


UK construction sector grows

Ian McConnell
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3 Jun 2010
The UK construction sector increased its overall workforce in May for the first time in two years, as recovery from deep recession continued, a key survey has shown.
And the civil engineering sub-sector finally returned to growth mode in May, after a 23-month downturn, according to the survey from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
CIPS’ seasonally-adjusted activity index for construction rose from 58.2 in April to 58.5 in May. This is well above the level of 50 which separates expansion from contraction, and signals the fastest expansion of output in 32 months.
The construction sector has, according to CIPS, now expanded for three consecutive months. Recovery accelerated sharply between March and April, before improving further in May.
CIPS’ construction employment index rose from 46.9 in April to 50.8 in May to signal the first rise in overall construction sector staffing since May 2008.
Housebuilding activity continued to recover sharply in May, and at a slightly increased pace, according to CIPS. The pace of recovery in commercial property construction eased slightly but remained robust.
UK construction companies, overall, indicated a modest rise in use of sub-contractors in May. This was the first such increase since November 2007.
Despite of this rise, the availability of sub-contractors rose in May. CIPS said this was “reflective of the length of the previous downturn in demand”. And rates charged by sub-contractors continued to fall.
Construction companies were upbeat about the outlook, in spite of the looming squeeze on public spending.
More than half of companies in the survey expected activity to rise in the next 12 months. CIPS highlighted the view from these firms that “the ongoing economic recovery should lead to increased new order intakes”.
Sarah Ledger, economist at survey compiler Markit, was encouraged by the strength of the survey but cautious about the outlook in light of the impending fiscal squeeze.
She said: “It was encouraging to see growth within the UK construction sector maintained during May, with all three sub-sectors indicating an expansion in activity. However, it is unlikely that the current rate of growth will be maintained over the medium term. This partly reflects the low base from which expansion is being built, but also the uncertainty surrounding cuts in public spending.”
Referring to the rise in employment, Ledger added: “Whilst in absolute terms pre-recession employment levels are a long way off, this indicates that increased activity is having an overall expansionary effect on the industry.”
David Noble, chief executive officer of CIPS, highlighted the fragility of recovery in construction activity and highlighted the extent of the sector’s dependence on public spending.
He said: “The recovery is so fragile that it will be extremely vulnerable to the impending public sector cuts and it is unclear whether the recovery is robust enough to cope with such knockbacks. Civil engineering is a clear case in point.”
 
Upturn in Work

I'm finding, where a branch is routinely providing an excellent level of service they are definately seeing a major upturn in work. On the other hand, where the branch has a limited amount of repeat business, they are still struggling and will continue to struggle even in a good market.

The main difference between a good performing location and a poor performing one is the quality of the staff. In so much as you may have excellent fully committed scaffolders, but if the person the client meets is an underperforming Supervisor / Contracts Manager / Branch Manager the quality of the scaffolders will only have a limited effect.
 
I think you have to treat all these reports with a pinch of salt, whether they are good bad or indifferent. However some one some where maybe tempted to buy that house now if he thinks the market has bottomed out and from there real shoots of recovery can grow.
 
double dip

Sadly with impending government cut backs my money is on the “double dip”
 
Our workload seems to be where it was in 2008 , public sector and utility spending seem upwards and we are also doing a bit on the olympics to.
However we take work where we can get it :)
 
I wouldn't be surprised if we had another recession - Seems that the cut backs the government are making is affecting all industries....... Hopefully it will pick up again but it seems to be slowing down again out there and that everybody is scared to spend any money
 
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