Clearview National August 2016 - Issue 177 | Page 12

BREXITUPDATE

Brexit –
catastrophe or
business as usual?
As the dust is still settling over
the historic Brexit vote in the EU
referendum, the full extent of its
implications may take years to untangle.
»»MORE THAN 30 MILLION
people voted ‘Leave’ in the shock
result on June 23 by 52% to 48%.
Following the result, the pound
dropped to its lowest level in 30
years against the US dollar.
David Cameron, Boris Johnson
and Nigel Farage have all resigned
and a protest march against
the Brexit vote attracted a huge
turnout in central London. The
Labour party lurched into crisis as
a raft of frontbenchers resigned,
backing a no confidence vote in
leader Jeremy Corbyn and Interior
Minister, Theresa May, succeeded
over candidates, Andrea Leadsom
and Michael Gove, to become
Britain’s next Prime Minister.
It’s not surprising that we feel
jumpy. Most accept that such a
climate can’t be good for business,
and there have been numerous and
conflicting predictions about the
impact of Brexit on construction
and house-building.
In this special Brexit feature
(correct at time of writing), we
have brought together some of the
news and views from this industry
and further afield, in an attempt
to unravel the issues at the heart of
this very complex subject.
INFRASTRUCTURE HALT
In the short term, we are told
not to expect any green lights
from government about such
major infrastructure issues as
airport runways, new railways and
nuclear power stations.

In the medium term, leaving
the EU may very well result in the
end of the British Union, with
separatist force pulling Scotland
away and the Good Friday
Agreement that brought peace to
Northern Ireland now potentially
unsustainable. The EU itself
will also face disintegrationist
pressures that could pull it
apart.
CONSTRUCTION
MORE VOLATILE
Monika Slowikowska, founder
of Golden Houses Developments,
a specialist in high-end residential
projects, believes Britain leaving
the EU will have a catastrophic
effect on the construction
industry and is worried about
the effect on EU funded projects,
pointing out that pots of money
such as the European Structural
Investment Fund (EUSIF) had
contributed billions towards UK
regeneration projects.
“We now also risk becoming
an unattractive proposition
for foreign investors from the
other 27 EU countries. This is
because increased travel costs
and import and export tariffs
could complicate the existing
simple arrangements,” Monika
explains.
“The same applies to buying
building materials from our
European partners. Currently,
59% of the building materials
we import come from EU

12 » AUG 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the
Federation of Master Builders

countries, who also buy 62% of
our exports in the same category.
Those transactions were simple
to process. Out of the EU, we
could pay higher prices and have
to contend with more red tape.
The inevitable result of this will
be higher house prices across the
UK.”
She added that the cost of
labour in the construction sector
had increased by an average of
8% in the last six months and
was set to keep rising. And, if
immigration reduces as predicted,
that could starve the construction
industry of much needed skills
from overseas. The shortage could
restrict the government’s ability to
meet its housebuilding targets.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive
of the Federation of Master
Builders (FMB) said: “The UK
construction industry has been
heavily reliant on migrant workers
from Europe for decades now
– at present, 12% of the British
construction workers are of nonUK origin.

“The majority of these are from
EU countries such as Poland,
Romania and Lithuania and they
have helped the construction
industry bounce back from
the economic downturn when
400,000 skilled workers left our
industry, most of which did not
return.
“It is now the government’s
responsibility to ensure that
the free-flowing tap of migrant
workers from Europe is not
turned off.
“If ministers want to meet their
house building and infrastructure
objectives, they have to
ensure that the new system of
immigration is responsive to the
needs of industry.”
Alan Brookes, UK Chief
Executive Officer of design
consultancy, Arcadis, said:
“Construction markets are likely
to become more volatile in the
short term, and we need to
consider a joined-up approach
to sustaining the capacity and
capability of the industry.