Latest figures show £8bn decline in UK construction industry output 11th January 2013
The performance of the UK construction industry looks set to have declined significantly in 2012 compared to 2011 as the latest output statistics for November 2012 were published today (11 January 2013). The figures show big declines in output across all of the main industry sectors including a 16% fall in output from the private commercial sector during the three months to November and a 20% decline in public sector housing output over that same period. Other public sector work has also fallen back significantly, down 17% between September and November last year. Commenting on the figures, Scottish Building Federation executive director Michael Levack, said: “With eleven months of data now compiled for the construction industry last year, output has fallen by more than 8% compared to 2011, wiping more than £8 billion off its value to the UK economy. We’ll need to wait until early March to see how the Scottish industry has performed in the last quarter of 2012 but I fully anticipate that those figures will also show steep falls in output for the full calendar year. “What’s more, our own membership survey published in December and the recent survey from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors both confirm that the future outlook for the industry remains extremely challenging. “In this context, there can be no greater priority for ministers than to use all instruments at their disposal to get shovels in the ground quickly on publicly funded projects and to introduce additional tax measures to stimulate private sector demand, in particular by slashing VAT on building repair and maintenance works.”
