The UK construction industry has seen its share of ups and downs. And with human nature being what it is, the downs tend to be more memorable. Construction, along with other sectors in the UK economy, was hit by the recession of the early 1980s and got knocked about a bit more when troubled times rolled around again a decade later. The industry suffered, but most people had seen it all before and worked their way through it. But when the next downturn hit in 2008, few had ever experienced anything on that scale.

Its roots lay in the flakey subprime lending markets, which had begun to wobble dangerously a year earlier. Things went completely pear-shaped with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the US investment bank, in September 2008. The bank’s demise sent a financial shockwave around the world, plunging the global economy into a tailspin from which it took years to recover. 

“Investment dried up, tender prices slumped, contractors were effectively buying work and people panicked”

Mark Lacey, Alinea

Now, 10 years after Lehman Brothers went bust – ushering in a period of corporate belt-tightening, projects being binned, firms going under, thousands of job losses and an economic Götterdämmerung few had ever seen – Building decided to ask some of the sector’s leading lights what the experience was like for them, and crucially what, if any, lessons the industry has learned.

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