Distress for the construction industry

The UKconstruction industry looks worrying as it’s forecasted to drop back into recession, research shows.

According to the Construction Products Association (CPA), output for the rest of 2010 will fall within the construction industry and will remain in decline for the first part of 2011.

Despite strong growth in the first six months of the year, forecasts show that the industry must prepare for a sluggish economic growth and sharp public sector cuts.

Construction output fell by 12% in 2009, the sharpest fall since 1974.

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the Construction Products Association, said:

“Although 2010 as a whole is likely to be slightly better than 2009, it is very much a year of two halves with construction output slipping back in the second half of the year as a result of growing uncertainty in the housing market and cuts in public spending.”

“Whilst we can see the prospects for a pick-up in output in 2012 and the following two years, this recovery is going be slow and hold back a more rapid growth in the wider economy. Even by 2014, output in the industry will not even have recovered to the levels it experienced in 2003.”