All articles by Brian Green – Page 20
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Comment
Fewer redundancy in construction, but the future remains bleak on jobs
For the optimists in the construction industry there is much hope to be gleaned from the latest employment figures.Equally for the pessimists there is plenty within the numbers to fret about.So what should we make of the latest batch of labour market numbers that, among other things, show that 163,000 ...
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NewsDoes slump in work mean a double-dip recession?
RICS' latest construction market survey provides more fare for the double-dippers
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Comment
RICS sees workload slump deeper in late 2009 - providing more fare for the double-dippers
It’s tempting to see the latest construction market survey by the surveyors’ body RICS as yet more evidence of a likely double dip in construction – however you want to define that.And I’m not going to sit here and argue against that possibility.But there is a case for some cautious ...
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NewsAnnual orders figures reveal extent of freefall
Recession rips away £17bn of orders over two years
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Comment
Annual orders figures reveal extent of construction freefall – a £17 billion drop in two years
The recession has ripped away from construction roughly £17 billion in annual new orders, despite £ billions more public sector sponsored work.That’s the clear message to me from the annual tot up of the new orders won by contractors released today.Forget the niceties of which sector is doing how well ...
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NewsWas it just the cold or is it a relapse?
Brickonomics takes an in-depth look at the RICS' latest housing market survey and what it means
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Comment
Was it just the cold or is it a relapse?
There are plenty of people, “experts” indeed, who fully expect a double-dip recession for both the economy and, for that matter, house prices.For them the data emerging for January’s performance appears to be, albeit gently, vindicating their position. They will no doubt seize with alacrity the retail figures from the ...
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Comment
How quickly can the Government cut back on construction spending?
It was put to me recently that, despite all talk of cuts to capital spending, many contractors held the view that UK governments have never managed to make cuts of more than 10% year on year.I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this, but three things struck me.Firstly: I ...
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NewsHow quickly can government cut construction spending?
One thing is certain, spending cuts are inevitable - but just where will the axe fall and how much will it hurt construction?
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Comment
Bulls in the housing futures market turn sheepish
There has been a sharp change of mood among the traders of housing futures who punt large sums on the level of house prices at given years ahead.Traders had turned bullish last autumn and even at the end of the year the Tradition Future HPI was showing a projected ...
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CommentBrian Green: This is your new playground
Relying on clients to create demand won’t work any more – construction firms need new, sophisticated business models that tie their profit to places rather than one-off projects
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Comment
God damn it, don’t you just feel richer...
When I see the house price indexes rising I can’t stop myself. I have to do a sum that estimates how much richer we are as a nation.Here’s how I do it. I head straight for the Blue Book (a set of the nation’s annual accounts, if you like) and ...
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NewsWe're still in recession says CIPS …
… despite official figures showing construction output growth
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NewsWill we see the return of mobile classrooms?
How will the construction industry deal with the potential cuts to the school building programme?
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Comment
Will we see the return of mobile classrooms, or can construction firms find a better solution?
In a chat yesterday it was suggested I should make a note of the rapid increase in the number of babies being born and the implications for construction, or not as the case may be.This chimed with me, as I had recently been told that they will need two more ...
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Comment
We’re still in recession says CIPS, despite official figures showing construction output growth
Here’s a question I ponder quite a bit. Why do the official figures show that construction grew in the second and third quarters of last year when to everyone else construction has remained mired in the slough of a nasty recession?Puzzling isn’t it. Even more puzzling that the estimates for ...
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Comment
Is an inaccurate measure of foreign workers messing up the construction data?
Here’s a couple of graphs for stat-spotters I thought worth placing together.For some while there has been unease about both the workforce jobs figures and the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) sector figures in the official construction output statistics.The two sets of data are linked and there's been some concern ...
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NewsBrighter outlook from forecasters, but severe risks remain
The forecasts from Hewes & Associates and Leading Edge sit interestingly against the other winter forecasts for construction output released over the past couple of weeks
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Comment
Brighter outlook from forecasters, but severe risks remain
The forecasts from Hewes & Associates and Leading Edge sit interestingly against the other winter forecasts for construction output released over the past couple of weeks.They seem to back up the mood among other forecasters that construction workload might not fall as much was feared in the middle of last ...
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Comment
We’ll be getting off relatively lightly if the construction workforce drops by 400,000
The latest forecast from the Construction Skills Network (CSN) suggests that the current recession in construction will have led to a drop of about 400,000 in the number employed by the industry once job shedding ends in early 2011.This would mean a drop of about 15% in the workforce. That ...