The training body’s five year forecast found that 2012 will be the most painful year in terms of construction output, with a 3 per cent fall, followed by “slow and uneven” growth over the next five years due to economic uncertainty and changes to working practices, reports Construction News.
Public sector spending faces the most dramatic falls, with a 25 per cent decline in the value of public sector housing projects and a 24 per cent fall in public-sector non-housing this year.
This is not a paywall. Registration allows us to enhance your experience across Construction Management and ensure we deliver you quality editorial content.
Registering also means you can manage your own CPDs, comments, newsletter sign-ups and privacy settings.
Manual trades will be worst hit, with 6,300 fewer painters and decorators expected to be working by 2016 than in 2010, 3,000 fewer labourers and 2,500 fewer bricklayers.
However, one area of growth will be among construction managers, with an expected increase of 30,000 by 2016.
On a more positive note, construction will create a total of 76,000 additional jobs by 2016, although 60 per cent of those will be in London and the South-east, meaning darker prospects for the rest of the country.
Judy Lowe, deputy chairman of CITB-ConstructionSkills, said the industry was in for a tough time: “Infrastructure investment, the first nuclear power plants and the revival of private housing will help, but the hard fact remains that despite an increase in growth from 2013, output and employment levels in construction will not have reached their 2007-8 levels by the end of the forecast in 2016,” she said. “The sluggish return to growth means that we could be talking about a lost decade in construction and a loss of key trade skills, but the real shock is the impact that cuts to public sector spending has had.”
Meanwhile, drivers Jonas Deloittes latest London Residential Crane Survey has highlighted that despite continued economic uncertainty , development activity across Greater London has continued to increase. The report says there has been a 40% increase in construction activity since this time last year, with activity rising in the East of the capital.
