New Homes Building Slump Affects Contractors

Date: February 20, 2009

How hard will contractors be hit in the construction industry?

New statistics published by the UK Statistics Authority on 19 February 2009 relating to the last quarter of 2008 show new housing was down by 27% on the previous quarter, and 58% down on the same quarter ending December 2007. These figures are seasonally adjusted. Non adjusted figures for private enterprise housing new builds, were a hefty 64% lower than the previous years quarter of the same period. In total, annual new build starts are down 43% on the peak of the building industry in 2005 to 2006, with a mere 105,000 new homes started.

Figures demonstrate lows last seen in the 1980's.

These figures reap no reward to building contractors within the industry, with UK contractors looking to the government to get back on track with its’ aims of 2 million new homes by 2016, looking more and more unlikely as new builds decline sharply. The government’s target to start around 240,000 new homes each and every year falls way short of the actual figures demonstrated from yesterday’s report from The National Statistics of 105,000.

As house prices and new builds are used by the government as a key indicator of economic conditions within the UK, we know that it is time to plan ahead and think about tightening our belts, particularly when considering the retail reports also available currently.

Any contractors working within IR35 in the building industry or any other industry can talk to OrangeGenie’s trained staff about our umbrella company services.