All articles by Brian Green – Page 23
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Construction continues to shed workers at an alarming pace
A further 38,000 construction workers were made redundant in the three months to September according to the latest Government labour market figures.This raises the total of employees shed over the previous 12 months to 177,000.Meanwhile the figures also show that the chances of those being made redundant finding a new ...
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The stagnant housing market: More a problem of first-time movers than first-time buyers
First-time buyers are increasingly becoming trapped in their first-time homes and unable to move on to homes that better suit their needs.That at least is the implication of some figures that caught my eye recently when I was looking though some data produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.Consider this: ...
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Has the housing mini-boom run out of puff?
All the gauges appear to be reading "set fair" in the housing market, so why the long faces among those in the know?The latest RICS housing market survey on the face of it provides every reason to suspect that better times lie ahead. This follows a raft of housing indexes ...
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Optimism alive and kicking in construction
The RICS construction survey for the third quarter of 2009 found confidence over increased workloads returning to the industry for the first time since 2008 Q1.This was despite an overall fall in workload across the industry as a whole and the fact that things would have been worse but for ...
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Orders figures continue to point to a rougher road ahead
For those poring over the latest new orders figures released today to find guidance on the future of construction activity I suspect there is something for the optimists, but rather more for the pessimists.It must be said that trying to discern sensible insight from examining the orders figures month by ...
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Growing evidence of double dip collapse for construction
The latest round of trade survey data points to an ugly acceleration in the rate of collapse of workloads.Persistent sightings of green shoots over the late spring and summer now look to have been little more than a mirage.The construction trade survey compiled by the Construction Products Association says the ...
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Falling construction helps hold UK in recession
An estimated fall of 1.1% in construction output in the third quarter of this year has helped to hold the UK economic growth in recessionary territory.Much to the surprise of many analysts the UK economy appears to have remained in recession, with GDP output falling 0.4% in the three months ...
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Why let planning just look like a lottery? Make it one
On the subject of Grant Shapps and John Healey, I attended the Housing Market Intelligence conference last week at which both spoke.I obviously recommend the conference because I have a vested interest in it and indeed the associated report, which I edit. But that is not the point.While the presentation ...
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Food for thought for would-be housing minister
The Building and Social Housing Foundation has emailed its latest report "The Future of Housing", which has just been published.It would be rather tricky to summarise the document other than to say it provides a critical look at the state of the post-credit-crunch housing market.The report is a synthesis of ...
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Forecasts suggest some rays of hope, but huge uncertainty remains
For those with an optimistic nature there was some good news to be seen in the latest set of industry forecasts with both the Construction Products Association and Hewes trimming how much they feel output in the industry will fall.Indeed the three forecasts came closer together in this round of ...
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Future traders think the tide has turned for house prices
The futures market is now pricing in strong growth in the housing market, with the Halifax index priced to rise by 6% over the coming 12 months and by 12% over 5 years.This is a marked rise in the prices from just a month ago and reflects the uplift in ...
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Contractors are bagging a third less new work than at peak
The latest new orders figures provide a sobering injection of reality after the barrage of "it's okay the recession is over" talk that seems rife.Yes the rate of collapse has slowed. But it's the level that really matters at the moment.Forgetting seasonal adjusted constant price measures, if we compare the ...
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How much has the recession cost house builders? um...
During a conversation with a colleague on the recent spate of cash calls by house builders I was quizzed on how much damage the recession had done to their balance sheets.I made a stab (a lucky guess as it turned out), but I should have had a number at my ...
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Economy not as bad as we thought thanks to construction
The fall in GDP wasn't as big as we thought thanks to stronger than estimated construction activity. That is the assessment of the statisticians who put together the national accounts.But is this good news or bad news for construction?The statisticians take was that construction output in the UK fell 0.8% ...
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Your chance to play: Fantasy Chancellor and swing that spending axe
Feel that fantasy football is a bit old hat? Think you have outgrown FIFA Manager 09 and are itching to run something bigger than a football club?Well why not try playing Fantasy Chancellor and conduct your very own Spending Review 2010.If it grabs your fancy, then those zany guys at ...
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111,000 jobs lost to construction... and that is just the start
The latest employment figures make grim reading for the construction industry with the number of workforce jobs plunging by 61,000 in the second quarter of this year.This means that 111,000 jobs have been lost to the industry since they peaked in the autumn last year.In fairness the drop in workforce ...
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Is this deflation I see before me? Why prices are rising faster than the inflation rate
I am not sure about you, but I sometimes have to go to the back numbers to make sense of the statistics that get thrown at me.I have been for some months a bit curious as to why the brightest brains (well some seriously well paid experts) among the UK ...
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House prices on the increase, but so too are the questions marks over the housing market
The big news is that for the first time in two years more surveyors in Britain said prices rose than said they fell, according to the latest RICS housing market survey.The big question is whether this is the start of a continuous and sustained recovery in the housing market or ...
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Meanwhile, ITEM Club says recent house price rise is a false dawn
Today the Item Club released a special report on house prices that suggests a further fall in the first half of next year.It sees the recent rise as a false dawn and says it will be another five years before prices get close to the peak they reached in 2007.Like ...
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"House price falls are over" say futures traders
House price falls are over. That is the declaration made over the past two months by the futures market after two years of grim expectations.As recently as last December you could forward buy a notional average house three years hence for £106,153 on the futures market. That price is set ...