Northern Ireland’s builders have seen a slight improvement in workloads in last quarter, but growth remains sluggish says FMB. Key results from the FMB’s latest State of Trade Survey, which is the only quarterly assessment of the UK-wide SME construction sector, include:
- Northern Ireland construction SME workloads remained negative in Q3 2019 but improved significantly, following a big drop in Q2 2019
- Carpenters overtake bricklayers as the trade in shortest supply with over half (56%) of construction SMEs struggling to hire carpenters and joiners and 54% struggling to hire bricklayers;
- 86% of builders anticipate that material prices will rise further in the next six months, slightly up from 77% in Q2 2019;
- 56% of SME construction companies expect higher salaries and wages over the next 6 months up from 51% on the previous quarter"
"It is encouraging to see more builders reporting improved conditions after a disappointing second quarter of 2019. However, still more builders are reporting falling workloads than those reporting that they are increasing, leaving Northern Ireland as the only nation, or region, of the United Kingdom to have seen negative growth over the last quarter.”
“One way in which the industry could be supported to grow is through greater investment in infrastructure. Northern Ireland Water has been chronically underfunded for a number of years and this is starting to take its toll on SME house builders who are seeing the lack of infrastructure. This has led to slow down in housing projects. This is likely to have a huge impact on housebuilding activity over the coming years”
“Northern Ireland Water should therefore secure the finance it needs to invest in the water system, as an upmost urgency. Northern Ireland SME Housebuilders rely on critical infrastructure such as drainage and water systems to build the homes we need. No drains really does mean no cranes.”
