Bad news and good?

At the beginning of this week the FMB published results of its latest State of Trade Survey, which make alarming reading for the construction industry.  Workloads across all sectors in the SME market are reported  to have declined, with 39% in the private new build market reporting that their workload had declined in the 3rd quarter of the year and another 40% indicating that they expected a further decline in the last quarter of the year.

With almost 70% of SMEs reporting that they expect material costs expected to rise over 6 months it paints a gloomy picture for contractors if the situation with workloads remain the same.

However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel as today it has been announced that the UK is officially out of the double dip recession, as the economy returned to growth at its fastest rate for 5 years.  Although during this period the construction industry actually shrunk by 2.5%, it is surely good news for the future for the industry.

The government have put in place plans for a business bank to help make funding more readily available for SMEs, which should help many businesses in the construction industry survive and grow in the current period.  Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB states “the Government must ensure that funding is available for customers as well as the businesses themselves.”

So, if both the business owner and the customer are able to access funding more easily, will it help the construction industry contribute to the future growth of our economy.  We can only hope so.