Budgets delayed, projects stalled: how the general election has led to the worst building activity in two years
I like this story because it enables me to make the point about our rural housing challenge and mention the election without taking political sides. It tells us:
Uncertainty about the result of the general election helped push Britain’s builders down to their worst performance in nearly two years in April, the financial data firm Markit said.
The Markit/Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply snapshot of industry fortunes, where a score above 50 signals growth, slowed to 54.2 from 57.8 last month. That represents the weakest overall growth since June 2013.
Civil engineers, commercial builders and, to a lesser extent, house builders all felt the squeeze. The headline reading was well below the 57.5 that had been expected by financial analysts.
Growth in new orders dipped while confidence is down from March’s nine-year high, echoing the weakness seen by UK manufacturers during April.
“The uncertain general election outcome appears to have put some grit in the wheels of decision-making,” said Markit’s senior economist, Tim Moore. “Construction firms widely noted delays with clients’ budget setting and a reduced propensity to commit to new projects.”
The chief executive of CIPS, David Noble, added: “This deceleration has been attributed to project delays and hesitancy as the country prepares to vote.”