Opinion 鈥� Page 426
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Comment
Official figures show construction solid as GDP slows in first quarter
The construction industry was one of the stronger elements of the UK economy in the first quarter of 2008, according to official figures that show the annual growth of GDP (gross domestic product) slowing to 2.5%.According to the ONS figures construction grew 0.5% in the first quarter and stood 2.9% ...
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Comment星空传媒 buys a pint 鈥� for Adams Kara Taylor
Guy can鈥檛 believe his bad luck. He is meeting a construction magazine for drinks and finds himself sat between two women rabbeting on about the Sex and the City movie.
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CommentVarious positions
Mark Clare is staying, Ross Brewer is leaping, Lawrie Haynes and Boris Johnson can鈥檛 be seen, a female engineer is attracting attention and the Department of Health is getting hot under the collar
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Comment
John the Evangelist
Your leader (9 May, page 3), coupled with Sir John Egan鈥檚 personal comments (page 32), rightfully acknowledge the progress that has been made in implementing some of the recommendations of Rethinking Construction.
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Comment
Not like the nineties
The 拢200m package to buy unsold homes proposed in the draft Queen鈥檚 Speech is the government taking money from housing associations (16 May, page 10).
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Comment
Keeping them keen
Staff retention is and has for a long time been a major issue in the construction industry.
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CommentRogue Customers
Clients who don鈥檛 pay can ruin small businesses and wreck the lives of their owners. James Clegg and Roxane McMeeken listen to the stories of three builders who think it鈥檚 high time something was done about the rogue customer
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CommentWhat happens in the second act?
After what has seemed like endless dithering on the part of the government, and endless lobbying campaigns by the interested parties, the reform of the 1996 Construction Act is finally on its way.
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Comment
A fall but no collapse in buy-to-let borrowers
The latest figures on buy-to let mortgages from the Council of Mortgages Lenders do provide some comfort for house builders tackling an increasingly tough market.There were fears that buy-to-let borrowing would collapse with the first whiff of a slowdown in house prices, but the figures suggest otherwise. The figures suggest ...
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Comment
Council of Mortgage Lenders forecasts house prices to fall by 7%
As a new consensus appears to be forming that house prices will fall between 5% and 10% this year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has updated its forecast for house price growth with a prediction of a 7% fall.CML is also expecting to see repossessions grow from 27,100 in 2007 ...
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Comment
Pay growth slows in construction
The latest official figures on average weekly earnings suggests a slowdown in pay earned in construction.Average weekly earnings in the first quarter of 2008 were a shade down on the final quarter of last year and the monthly figures suggest a drop in the rate of growth in earnings, ...
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Comment
Latest property transaction figures confirm slump in house sales
The official figures for property transactions worth more than 拢40,000 (mainly houses) show a drop of 31% in the four months to April compared with the same period a year ago.The data shows just how hope of a spring bounce in the housing market have been dashed.
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Comment
How many foreign workers in UK construction?
The Office of National Statistics has released a paper based on Labour Force Survey data that estimates the number of foreign workers employed in the UK and makes a stab at how many work in various industry sectors, including construction.Leaving aside the assumptions and definitions the figures work out roughly ...
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Comment
Job cuts high on the agenda as house building slides
Taylor Wimpey's move to axe a third of its offices and about 600 jobs in the UK is the clearest sign yet of the pain in the house building sector.It may not be the first cut so far announced, but it is the deepest. And it follows weeks of discussion ...
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Comment
Soros gives bleak warning for UK economy
George Soros, the man who made a $1 billion profit in 1992 from anticipating Black Wednesday, says that the US recession is likely to be longer and more serious than currently expected and economic prospects are "in some ways" worse for the UK.Speaking to BBC's Robert Peston he said that ...
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Comment
Accountants see confidence drop in property and construction
When accountants start to get twitchy it is worth sitting up and taking notice. So, the latest business confidence survey by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) showing the impact of the credit crunch is spreading is worth taking seriously.Figures of note are that property has ...
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Comment
RICS revises down house price forecast
Transactions are to plunge by 40% this year and prices will fall about 5%, says the latest Housing Market Forecast from the surveyors body RICS.The latest forecast shifts RICS from it position of last September when it was predicting house prices would remain flat. But for the industry at large ...
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Comment
"Wrong tactics" by sellers stoke asking prices for homes
The rise in Rightmove's asking price index to a new record high is the result of out-of-touch discretionary sellers testing the spring market with unrealistic prices, according to the property website's commercial director Miles Shipside.Despite the almost overwhelming gloom in the market, Rightmove posted a rise of 1.2% in asking ...