Best of Brickonomics 2012

The point of Brickonomics is to take a hard critical look at the wealth of construction related data and try to make some sense of it all. Sadly, but not surprisingly, that makes it gloomy reading in these days.

One good reason for poking hard at the numbers that describe construction is because they are particularly prone to going up, down and sideways wildly and often in a confusing and contradictory fashion. It’s very easy to be thrown from optimism and despair in the turn of a page.

You can blame the data. You can wag a finger at those who collect and analyse the data. But ultimately what we all want is a clearer more balanced view of where we are and where we are heading.

That’s what Brickonomics strives to do.

When I was presented with this list of the top five best-read Brickonomics blogs I was a bit surprised. They were not particularly gloomier nor were they more optimistic than average.

Topping the list was a tub thumper in reaction to yet more poor output figures. One was a straight analysis piece.

But what pleased me was that three were attempts at getting behind the data to look at how they are put together and what useful but partially hidden meanings might sit behind them.

The numbers that describe construction are prone to going up, down and sideways wildly and often in a confusing and contradictory fashion

So, for example, the analysis of the RICS construction survey started with a rather unexpected rise in optimism. I’m not against optimism, but it seemed a bit out of place given the state of the UK market.

This led me to quiz the survey and the economists at RICS were most helpful. There seems to be potential within the survey for consultants to record their optimism about overseas work done in the UK and, as other data show, UK consulting firms seem to be doing very well overseas.

The RICS construction survey is a pretty good forward indicator of future work on the ground. For that reason I like it.

A first reading of the third quarter survey results might have you think things were getting better in the UK construction market. That is a pleasing thought, but sadly it isn’t necessarily what the figures are telling us.

When I look at the top five picked, they are not necessarily the ones of which I’m most proud.

But those posts sort of sum up what the blog is about. It’s about getting a bit angry about policymakers not understanding the state of construction. It’s about shouting about the awful and (admittedly rarely) the promising data. But most of all it is trying to find a better understanding from the numbers of what is going really going on.

The five most-read Brickonomics blogs of 2012 …