Would you care to comment on job cuts facing housebuilders?

Yesterday morning I set out on a quest to find out what the guys on site think of the latest job losses to hit housebuilders.

I headed out to a Barratt Homes site in Watford, where I anticipated getting people to talk about their hopes and fears for the future.

As the door of the sales office opened I felt like I’d landed in a wild-west saloon, in my mind eerie tumbleweed rolled across the floor.

From behind the counter, a sales representative eyeballed my every move. When I struck up friendly conversation, I was picked off with a gun load of, “No comment”.

Just as I put my notepad away, a tad dejected, she changed her mind and said: “Companies are stopping building across the board; people are certainly at risk of redundancy. I’m uncertain about my future.”

As the door of the sales office opened I felt like I’d landed in a wild-west saloon, in my mind eerie tumbleweed rolled across the floor.

She definitely looked it as a supervisor walked through the door. The conversation came to an immediate halt and I felt I better leave before she got into trouble.

I retreated to the main site entrance in the hope of catching some of the workers as they left for their lunchtime egg-and-chips. No one would give an interview, but their morbid expressions and the pouring rain outside were enough to create a gloomy atmosphere.

Back at the site gates, armed with my umbrella and notebook, my presence was clearly not welcome. Within minutes, burly security men appeared from behind the 8ft high security fence to escort me away from the ‘classified’ site.

I guess no matter which site I had picked the reception would have been the same. When times get tough, no one is that keen to talk about it.