Clearview North November 2013 - Issue 144 | Page 91
businessnews
RISING COSTS THREATEN BUILDING RECOVERY
Increases in material and labour costs could
pose a serious threat to the fragile recovery in
the building industry, warns the Federation of
Master Builders (FMB).
‘Costs have remained high’
The FMB’s latest State of Trade Survey
of member firms shows the net balance for
workloads, expected workloads and enquiries
in the third quarter of 2013 was positive across
nearly all parts of the UK for the second quarter
in a row. In particular, the private new build and
residential repair and maintenance sectors saw a
marked improvement, and overall 42% of small
builders saw their workloads increase. However,
material costs, wages and salaries are all expected
to continue rising over the next six months, with
the result that many building companies may
have to put up their prices.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said:
“Construction SMEs have battled to maintain
staffing and capacity while trying to keep prices
competitive. Material costs have remained high
throughout 2013, and further increases could
snuff out this recovery in its infancy, especially if
companies that have cut their profit margins to
the bone to beat the recession are now forced to
pass on those costs to their customers.”
NEW FIGURES SHOW RECORD
NUMBERS OF APPRENTICES
More people than ever
before are taking part in an
apprenticeship, according to the
provisional figures published in
October 2013.
Nearly 860,000 people were
on an apprenticeship in 2012/13
with the gold standard of higher
and advanced levels attracting
record levels of apprentices.
The data also shows that
there were over 1.5 million
apprenticeship starts since 2010.
Skills Minister Matthew
Hancock said: “These figures
show that a record 858,900
people participated in
apprenticeships last year, which
is almost 370,000 more than in
2009/10.
“This is good news for the
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