Enquiries - 3rd Quarter 1999 Where the outlook is concerned, it is also helpful to look at what respondents say about how the level of enquiries about possible future work has moved over the last quarter. It should be noted here, however, that written-in comments from several respondents have complained that, whilst enquiries had risen, their success rate in bidding for work was down; and there seem to be indications of a general trend in this direction when one compares the balances of percentages reporting enquiries higher and lower in the third quarter with those for expectations of the trend in workload over the coming three months, as described in the preceding section.
Table 5 - Enquiries in the Last Quarter   1991 1999 Q2   Q1 Weighted percentages   balance Higher Same Lower Balance Northern -12 17 23 60 -43 North West -24 11 60 29 -18 Yorkshire & Trent +44 43 25 32 +11 Midlands +3 38 15 47 -9 Eastern +6 41 44 15 +26 London +7 66 23 11 +55 Southern +18 39 37 24 +15 South West -5 36 34 31 +5 South Wales -25 35 31 34 +1 All builders +4 39 36 25 +14 All specialists +8 32 26 42 -10 National +6 37 34 29 +8
Relatively the largest positive swing in the result for enquiries between the second and third quarters is exhibited by respondents in the Northern Counties, the balance of which is up from -43 to +9 this time. The North West. Yorkshire & Trent, Eastern Counties, and South West all show more modest gains, but the Southern Counties, Midlands and South Wales have gone very clearly the other way. So too has London Region, though firms there have still posted a balance as strong as +32, only marginally behind those for Eastern Counties and Yorkshire & Trent. The result from the Midlands is the most disappointing, with only one in five firms reporting more enquiries, and the weighted percentage balance of replies dropping to -37. With this question also there is a marked contrast between the experience of builders and specialists, the former recording a balance slightly higher than last time at +16, but the specialists' balance of -10, the same as for the second quarter, trims the overall result for the trend in enquiries to +10. As far as the sectoral balances are concerned, the most marked changes between the second and third quarter results are those for the sectors that have already shown up best in the results for the preceding questions on recent and expected trends in workload.
Table 6 - Enquiries by Sector   1998 results 1999 1999 Q2   % balance, not weighted Q1 Weighted percentages   Q2 Q3 Q4 balance Higher Same Lower Balance Housing:                 Private new +6 -16 -22 -1 25 54 21 +4 Private RM&I +19 +13 -16 +5 35 45 20 +15 Social new -19 -24 -29 -15 13 42 45 -32 Social RM&I -5 -9 -23 -16 18 47 35 -17 Non-residential:                 Public new build -13 -22 -21 -24 26 41 33 -7 Public R&M -12 -20 -25 -23 25 42 33 -8 Private industrial -9 -22 -24 -20 26 41 33 -7 Private commercial -13 -17 -13 -3 28 47 25 +3 Private R&M -6 -5 -20 -12 31 45 24 +7
The balance in respect of social housing new build is better, but still very clearly negative. There is further evidence of a turning of the tide of work in the social housing RM&I sector, however, in a balance for enquiries that has swung from -17 to +17 over the past three months. Otherwise, the largest changes between the second and third quarter results are those for private industrial and private commercial new build and refurbishment, both of which display double-digit improvements in their balances for enquiries from last time to this. First posted: 19 October 1999. Last modified: 21 January 2000.