Construction workloads fall at fastest rate in decade

The construction industry is experiencing its sharpest slowdown in more than a decade, new statistics show.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) construction market survey shows activity levels slowing in all regions as the lack of available finance takes hold.

Within the UK, Northern Ireland is experiencing the biggest decline in construction work, with workloads falling at their fastest rate since 1996.

Public non-housing workloads declined by nearly a fifth against the first quarter while public housing fell by a tenth in the same period.

RICS senior economist David Stubbs told the Financial Times chances of the public sector holding up the construction industry were “slim” as the public component made up only 25% of the industry.

The survey also shows infrastructure spending grew only marginally and could fall the next quarter for the first time in five years.

Two-thirds of respondents also said they expected dwindling profit margins to fall further.