NORTHERN IRELAND experienced some of the sharpest declines in construction activity in the last quarter compared to any other region of the UK, according to new industry research.
A new study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) across the UK points to an industry in crisis in the North and highlights the potential for yet more job losses in the sector.
The RICS examined housebuilding activity, labour availability, expected profit margins and publicly-funded building infrastructure projects. Northern Ireland emerged as one of the worst affected regions by the economic downturn.
Both private and public housing construction workloads fell sharply in the North, while it also recorded one of the fastest declines in private commercial workloads. There is some evidence that the pace of the downturn in the local construction has slowed.
But overall the survey paints a picture of the Northern Ireland construction sector in a severe recession.
Some parts of the UK construction industry received a boost from recent public sector investment in the three-month period, but this was not evident in Northern Ireland. Infrastructure workloads have fallen back sharply and overall the North has seen workloads decline at a faster pace than most all parts of the UK.
Ben Collins, RICS Northern Ireland director said no one expected a quick recovery in the current market.“The outlook for the construction industry in Northern Ireland as a whole remains depressed and it is likely that there will be further redundancies in the sector in the months ahead.”
However, the survey shows some improvements and Northern Ireland respondents are less gloomy looking 12 months ahead than they were earlier in the year.
The latest construction survey comes as the UK’s Council of Mortgage Lenders warns that rising unemployment could cause potential problems for homeowners in the North.
