General election hits construction work

The RICS construction market survey for the last quarter of 2009 shows 12 per cent more surveyors reported falling rather than rising workloads, down from 6 per cent in the third quarter.

Private housing work was particularly badly hit, with a negative balance of -17 per cent, although public housing fared better at -1 per cent.

RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said: ‘The acceleration of capital spending programmes seems to have faltered in recent months and our members’ perception is that this is due to more caution being exhibited by the government in the approach to the general election.

‘Coupled with the fact that development finance is still in very limited supply, this sector is likely to remain locked in recession for at least the first half of this year.’

However, a separate report from information business Glenigan suggests housing work increased during the autumn, peaking at 27 per cent higher than the year before in October.

It notes there has been a slow start to 2010, with new housing starts down 1 per cent on the previous year, but says this was down to bad weather including snow.

Economics director Allan Wilen said: ‘The pick-up in project starts during the autumn indicates that house builders are preparing to capitalise on the anticipated modest improvement in market conditions and a gradual recovery in new residential projects is forecast over the course of this year.’

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