Gloom still building for construction industry
THE North-east construction market has been hit with further bad news, with new figures showing builders in the region witnessed a further drop in work over the final quarter of 2009.
The latest construction survey from RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) shows an increase in the number of chartered surveyors reporting a decline in workloads during the last three months of last year, undoing the six months of gains found in previous surveys.
Significantly, public non-housing projects declined for the first time since the first quarter of 2009, indicating that there has been a slow down in planned Government capital spending projects.
Bosses in the North-east now fear this will get even worse over 2010 as a result of expected cuts following the General Election.
The report saw most sectors suffer a significant drop in workloads, including private housing, the private industrial sector, infrastructure and private commercial property.
As a result, expectations for a pick-up in trade have been dented, with only 2% more chartered surveyors expecting increased business in the current quarter than those expecting a drop.
Although the balance remains positive, this is significantly lower than the 9% figure that was reported in the previous survey.
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