All articles by Brian Green – Page 33
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Comment
Construction redundancies hit 10-year high and job vacancies drop by a third
The rapidly worsening headline figures for UK jobs are worrying enough for us all. It is a sobering thought to contemplate the pain of 100,000 fewer in fulltime employment and a leap of 140,000 in the number of unemployed over the three months to September.The latest figures for the third ...
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Comment
Why bigger contractors were slower to see the oncoming recession
Something that has been puzzling me for some while is why bigger contractors were so slow to accept their may be a recession coming.Up to about springtime in various conversations with fairly senior folk and in notes I'd read from main contractors I noted an air of confidence and talk ...
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Comment
House sales plunge further but surveyors see brighter future
The RICS has put an extremely upbeat spin on its latest monthly housing market survey despite the continued collapse in sales.The survey highlights the clear 20% majority of optimists over pessimists among the surveyors quizzed in October about future prospects for sales.This +20 balance in favour of sales increasing in ...
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Comment
Fancy a 40% discount on a house? Then just wait, says the futures market
The futures market has downgraded it expectations for house prices which now points to a fall in cash terms of more than 40% from the peak in August last year to the bottom of the market in 2011.According to Tradition Future HPI an average house measured by the Halifax index ...
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Comment
IMF sees major decline in UK economic prospects
The prospects for the global economy are declining so fast that it has prompted the updating of an IMF forecast released just last month.The prospects for the UK now look decidedly gloomier to the IMF, which has revised its forecast of 0.1% fall in GDP to a fall of 1.3% ...
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Comment
Company collapses add to construction industry woes
The financial stress within construction firms caused by the credit crunch is made stark in the latest official insolvency figures. And the problems facing the sector are being increased as property firms collapse in massively swelling numbers.Between July and September this year there was an increase of almost two thirds ...
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Comment
In praise of a happiness
Naturally we wish the new US President Barack Obama well in the tough job he has ahead and in his commitment to boost the nation's construction industry in a bid to improve the massive yet increasingly tatty infrastructure.From the news there would appear to be an international surge in happiness ...
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Comment
Orders for new construction work evaporate
The September figures for new construction orders are truly shocking and extremely worrying.In the past I have tended to treat the orders figures with a bit of disrespect because they bounce around to the point where you can't make sense of them.Not now. Put bluntly from May onward, the industry ...
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Comment
House prices 16% down and falling faster
House prices fell 2.2% in October to the level they first reached more than three years ago, according to the latest Halifax figures.But how far can they fall?That was a question put to me yesterday. I hate doing prediction, not enough gypsy blood I guess.But I obliged with a suggestion ...
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Skyscrapers and economic crises
I recently mentioned the "skyscraper index" to a colleague. He hadn't heard of it. I deduced he has better things to do than keep up with quirky economic indicators - what, I can't imagine.Anyway, it occurred to me that, if he hadn't heard of it, others also might not have. ...
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Comment
Threat of more job cuts as credit crunch contagion spreads to commercial work
The recession in construction is looking increasingly desperate as the giant commercial sector appears to be heading for a nasty fall.The latest round of data will be a massive body blow to those who sought comfort in the notion that the recession in construction might limit itself mainly to housing.The ...
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Comment
The UK construction industry is in recession
If the definition you use is two quarters of negative growth, then on the first count by the national statisticians the construction industry is in a recession.The latest GDP figures show that growth in the whole economy dipped by 0.5% in the third quarter. This was the first fall for ...
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Comment
US are repossessing more homes per head than the UK is building
Now here is a thought. Over the past months, the rate of foreclosures (repossession) per head of population in the US has been running ahead of the rate of new homes built per head of population in the UK.I haven't got the precise figures on UK completions, because they haven't ...
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Comment
OFT must act to stop suicidal bidding in the face of recession
If Mervyn King says we are about to head into recession, frankly it's pretty much a done deal.No matter how much the Government says it wants to protect construction, in reality there is only so much it can do. The industry is heading for recession, if it is not already ...
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Comment
New depths reached in housing market sales
The latest statistics from HM Revenue & Customs show that new record lows have been plumbed by sales in the UK housing market.On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales in September dropped to just 38% of the peak level reached in December 2006.Taking a broad brush view, it would seem that ...
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Comment
Is this the worst time to be "more relaxed"?
I am sure I will not be the only one who draws this parallel. But I suspect it is a classic illustration of why credibility matters in both politics and economics.George Bush on the US economy, October 2008: "I have heard that people's attitudes are beginning to change from a ...
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Comment
Rightmove - wrong meaning
I'm not one for publicly criticising other journalists and their take on things. I feel vulnerable enough myself.But sometimes it is worth clearing up a bit of confusion.I read the Rightmove figures and thought no surprise there then, not worth a comment this time around.I then read various headlines and ...
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Comment
Tender price squeeze is likely to threaten construction firms
The latest projections from the cost service BCIS point to further reductions in tender price over the next two years despite expected rises in input prices.The latest figures show a fall of 1.2% in the first quarter of this year, followed by no growth in the second quarter, while costs ...
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Comment
Spend big, yes, but spend wisely on construction Mr Darling
Just over a week ago I had lunch with three economists, all with more than a passing interest in construction. Oddly, perhaps, for a group of economist there seemed to be a consensus, well at least on one topic.If construction is heading for recession then the Government is wise to ...
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Darling's bid might steer construction away from a nasty recession
Less than a fortnight ago I wondered whether we might see a return to Keynesian-style cash injections to buoy the real economy and more specifically construction. I recall other similar comments in the media.Now it seems from stories in the FT and the Telegraph that this thought may become reality. ...