House building industry 'more optimistic'

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 10:14:44 GMT

Things appear to be looking up for the house building industry as one construction expert has stated that the situation "seems a lot more optimistic".

Nick Whitten, associate editor at Construction News, says that there is generally a slightly more upbeat mood among people in the building trade than there was six months ago.

However, his comments come in response to new statistics from the Federation of Master Builders, which could make grim reading for some people in the trade.

One-third of all building firms have stated that they expect to cut their staffing levels during the first quarter of 2010.

Similarly, some 38 per cent of companies had to make redundancies during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Despite this, Mr Whitten remains optimistic, saying that the figures contradict other statistics - such as those from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, which showed a rise in residential construction activity for the month of December.

"In certain areas there are signs of the job losses ending and certainly in the economic recovery, there will be other areas that start to recruit as well," he comments.

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