Slight pick up for social housing construction

But social housing development in the 12 months to 30 June 2009 fell 7 per cent compared with the previous year, the latest ONS construction industry bulletin reports.

New private housing work was down 3 per cent in Q2 2009 compared with the previous quarter. And private housing development in the 12 months to 30 June 2009 was down 28 per cent compared with the previous 12 months.

Total construction output in the second quarter of 2009 fell 0.5 per cent compared with Q1.

Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: ‘Construction output in the second quarter fell by less than had been provisionally estimated in GDP data. The 0.5 percent drop follows the 8 percent decline in the first three months of the year. As a result of this, the peak to trough decline in construction output currently stands at 15.7 per cent.

‘While it would be misguided to interpret the latest data as signalling that the pain is over in the construction sector, the worst of the adjustment does now appear to lie in the past and the more probable scenario going forward is one of a very gradual recovery against a backdrop of a continued shortfall of development finance.

‘Significantly, the volume of new work actually picked up in the second quarter led by a sharp increase in the contribution from the public sector. Public housing rose modestly but the biggest gain was in the non-housing area which jumped a hefty 12 percent. This sector is the principal beneficiary of both the Olympics project and the restart of the school building programme.’

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