Construction - any signs of a downturn yet?

Funding is becoming harder for our developer clients to secure. Our order book is strong but projects are starting to slip backwards.

Judging recruitment at the moment is tough!

I've cancelled my extension before it even started. Got planning but not taking it any further at the moment. I can't be alone.

opposite end of the country so not sure if its relevant to you  - manufacturer in the industry here....a few less new build sites from the usual players in Scotland at least, but no let up in the retrofit market.  Plenty of heat pump cylinders being made/sold and large scale projects for that type of kit.

Commercial projects are noticably shifting away from new build office type builds to refurb/retrofit to flats of city centre properties.

almost every end customer of mine is recruiting - from Consultants through to the installers.

still busy as overall.

Steel has come down in price by quite a chunk.
Just need those pesky actors to go back to work so we can crack on with something 😎

I work in Building Control, June and July were much quieter (20-25%) than the previous months in my region in terms of new projects, but things look to have improved a bit in August. Builders merchants are quiet, anecdotally at least, but nearly all of the builders and trades I deal with are still saying they're flat out.

Architects/designers are saying they're seeing far less enquires however, so I suspect it will be a slow winter/first quarter next year.

There ought be a load of hospital and school jobs, but will there be?

I'm in Bristol, everyone still seems to be pretty busy so far.

But this could still be the backlog? I was chasing my roofer to come and do some work from around Jan / Feb - he finally managed to fit me in in August. No doubt he's still got people in the queue for a while yet...

Steel has come down in price by quite a chunk.
Just need those pesky actors to go back to work so we can crack on with something

I'm lucky to be in the rare 1/4 of the workforce still working at present  - I imagine the film construction industry could pivot to temporary classrooms 🙂 Or head to DT78's house.

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/new-orders-fall-at-fastest-pace-for-three-years

Might be behind the paywall but FT reporting a big slowdown for the big companies.

Cost increases are still high and skills are still in short demand so there are other aspects to this.

https://www.ft.com/content/f9fc08ab-37f9-46d3-bebf-d5961258f380

almost every end customer of mine is recruiting – from Consultants through to the installers

Consultant here, busier than ever, beginning to wonder if something is wrong with fee levels now as directors know we're too busy, we can't recruit, we are struggling to maintain quality, but they keep bringing the work in! We're literally tripping over large redevelopment projects and new build projects, and I know other consultants are the same.

I'd love to know what the big picture reason is. are people funnelling cash into property as a safe haven? Have jobs just gotten too complex or too short programmed for traditional staffing levels? Doesn't feel sustainable.

<span style="caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 15.9201px;">Plenty of heat pump cylinders being made/sold and large scale projects for that type of kit</span>

Who do you work for?

Anyone know of a decent plasterer in Skipton who'd want a small domestic job? No? Didn't think so... 🙂

it'll be quicker and cheaper to teach yourself.  and that's with expecting to have to redo it again after you cock it up the first time :)))

I'm learning (re-learning) enough skills on this job as it is. Having rendered a small area of wall last summer, very badly, plastering is one of those things that I'm very happy to pay someone to do...

Not in North West still busy and booming at least me and everyone I know.

Slightly different from the general construction industry, but I’m in house building in the south east, and there has been a definite slow down in the last couple of months. Seems people are waiting to hear what is going to happen with mortgage rates, before they commit to buying a new house.(understandably)

From what I’ve read,HAs are slowing down on affordable housing too.

Had yet another carpenter round to quote for what I believe is a few days work of assorted carpentry. Sent a reminder, he wanted to double-check some measurements which I took as a positive sign. He came round, measured but haven't heard from him since!

I’m lucky to be in the rare 1/4 of the workforce still working at present – I imagine the film construction industry could pivot to temporary classrooms

To be honest it’s nice to have a break after a hectic 18 months.
We were discussing this earlier, a few support frames with metal decking on top to contain the dodgy roofs should do the job nicely. Jobs a good un 😉

We supply temporary power to building sites , festival's and anywhere not connected to the mains and we are stupidly busy.

Another consultant here and we have seen 3 mid sized builders go into administration in the last 2 months and 3 or 4 go a while before that. Not sure if it's a sign that the projects are coming in way more than estimated or just poor management but it's impacted us a bit.

Also seeing quite a few new build schemes on hold or just shelved again due to spiraling costs and funders holding back.

We are still busy but I have my fears that some serious stripping back is on the cards.

A bust is on the way sooner or later. History repeating itself as always in construction.

In honesty, although a lot of good, and innocent people in construction got caught in the last recession, it did a lot of good in terms of clearing the dross and chancers out of the industry.

HUGE Building Regulations reforms are coming, some technical, but a lot procedural, which will fundamentally change the way all projects must be approached. And for and high risk buildings, the newly formed Building Safety Regulator (part of HSE) will be the Building Control Body. New timescales, milestones, stop notices, enforcement powers etc etc. But most firms seem oblivious.

It's about time there was a shake up, there are so many incompetent and frankly wreckless architects, designers and contractors in the industry.

Things will get much worse before they get better.

Freight train driver here, not dragging anywhere as near as much stone about the place as at the start of the year for distribution.  Some 6 day a week customers are down to 1 or 2 at some locations.

In honesty, although a lot of good, and innocent people in construction got caught in the last recession, it did a lot of good in terms of clearing the dross and chancers out of the industry.

Both the good and bad are still out there in all industries and construction is definitely not immune.

Substantial contractors going tits up and that work being covered by others

Buying jobs in cheap during lock down has taken its toll

HUGE Building Regulations reforms are coming

It seems nobody is taking notice of this

I had a chat with a director the other day, he said its the mother of all tsunamis thats going to hit construction, its just a matter of when

So all good then

Consultant here as well. We are busy but the forward order book is looking a bit light in the SE. Buckingham Group going down has caused a few worries and affected some projects pretty badly.

This year I have had a few small scale landscaping jobs on the go. In April Type 1 was £42 per bulk bag, I have just had two more delivered and it has jumped to £49 a bag, plus VAT.

It is ok though, Rishi and Jeremy are sorting inflation.

I'd got a builder pencilled in for a small 3m x 3m extension for next spring/summer as that was the earliest he could do - he called me up last week to say he could start before end of September.

Price hasn't come down though! 🙂

I totally agree @garage-dweller, construction is far from immune, it just cleared a load out for a while, they're back at a similar level, and could do with culling again...

@plumber It really will be a tsunami, at all levels, but commercial and high risk/complex projects WILL grind to a halt as you simply won't be allowed to start projects until the plans are fully approved, and stop notices will be issued if unapproved deviations/amendments are found on site. And they're just two tiny elements of it.

I'm a bricklayer based in Sheffield, construction seems definitely to be slowing down bit similar to last recession where 12months before it was classed as a recession construction was already in one.Getting odd calls off builders I've not spoken to for years asking if I know of anyone with work around.It doesn't seem desperate at the moment but again this is similar to what happened back in 07/08 so can see things getting worse.Fingers crossed I'm hugely wrong though 🤞

Been chatting to many builders, architects in my area (Cotswolds) as I used to be in the trade, many are noticing a downturn in jobs being seen through to completion, but they still have prospective projects coming in - just fewer actually going to site. Just spoke to one this am who said it was (unsurprisingly) smaller jobs, extensions and the like being shelved, rather than commercial or larger housing.

Recession before the next general election would be my guess.

From the punter side of things, it seems practically impossible to even get a quote for small-ish jobs.

Yours,

Looking for someone to replace a bay window top in Sheffield.