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News Release from: Federation of Master Builders (FMB) | Subject: FMB State of Trade Survey
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial Team on 19 October 2005

Building work slows in third quarter

FMB State of Trade Survey indicates end of long upward trend. During the last three months the growth in building work across the country was at its weakest since 1999.

The Federation of Master Builders quarterly State of Trade survey reports the first negative balance in over five years between the number of builders reporting an increase in work compared with those reporting a reduction Nationally, 35% of builders reported a fall in workload, against 31% saying work had increased, giving a negative balance of - 4

The results appear to confirm that the long upward trend in the workload of small and medium sized building contractors has come to an end.

FMB director general, Ian Davis sounded a note of caution, saying: "Although the negative balance is relatively small it seems clear that workload has fallen since the second quarter, when the balance was even".

The weak overall picture masks some quite large swings in the results of several of the Government Office Regions in England and Wales.

Those working principally in Greater London, the South East, Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands bucked the downward trend with more firms in these regions reporting an increase in work than during either of the previous two quarters.

Wales also continued to report a positive balance.

The biggest losers were firms in the North East, where almost half (48%) of those surveyed said workload was down, a large swing from Q2, when the region reported one of the highest positive balances.

Despite the overall downturn in workload, employment figures were positive, with 20% reporting an increase in employee numbers, against 15% reporting a decrease.

A similar level of increase in employment is expected next quarter.

During Q3, workload was down for all types of work with the exception of public non-residential new build, which returned equal proportions of "higher" and "lower" replies.

There are some signs of confidence in expected workload for Q4, with a small positive balance (+2) in favour of those anticipating work to increase.

Respondents were most optimistic for housing work, with expectations for both new build and repair and maintenance work of both private and social housing appearing stronger than they were three months ago.

Said Ian Davis: "These results are broadly in line with those of the first two quarters of 2005, and confirm that workloads overall have reached a plateau and are dipping slightly".

"It is, however, interesting to note the regional variations".

"London, the South East and Yorkshire are showing signs of recovery having had a poor start to the year, whereas the reverse is the case in the North East and North West".

"While we expect the national trend to continue in Q4, when the industry generally suffers a seasonal downturn, we must wait to see if the see-saw effect continues in the New Year.".

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