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Home improvement scheme offers hope amid "depressing news" for builders
19/08/10
Edited by Bob Witham.The government's planned green deal is the only "ray of light at the end of the tunnel" for a construction industry suffering from declining workloads and a lack of home improvement spending, the Federation of Master Builders has said.
Brian Berry, the organisation's director of external affairs, believes the proposed scheme, which will provide a loan of up to £6,500 to allow residential property owners to enhance the energy efficiency of their dwellings, could involve the retrofitting of around 26 million houses.
He said this is the only positive for the builders amid "yet more depressing news" on orders and spending.
Mr. Berry was referring to a new report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which showed a balance of seven per cent of its members saw construction workloads decline during the second quarter of the year.
Private residential property orders managed to hold steady, but expected budget cuts meant 26 per cent of Rics affiliates reported shrinking orders for social housing.
Elsewhere, the latest Purchasing Managers' Index from Markit and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply showed construction activity had slowed to its weakest level in four months during July.
