Industry News
Practices feeling most uneasy about taking on permanent
staff – index hits lowest level in almost two years
The RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index
fell five points in July to -3, showing a
significant decrease in the appetite of
practices to recruit permanent architectural
staff.
This is the first time that the Staffing Index
has fallen into negative territory for almost
two years.
The Workload Index reduced to +5,
dropping from +9 in June 2019.
While practices in the North of England
remained the most positive (+39) and
the South, Wales, and the West continued
to show greater confidence about future
workloads (both up two points since June),
practices in London remain the most
downbeat, returning a figure of -15 from
-8.
The Midlands and East Anglia also slipped
into negative territory from 0 to -10.
Large practices (51+ staff) again seemed
the most confident, while medium-
sized practices (11 to 50 staff) returned
a workload balance of +22 and small
practices (1 to 10 staff) recorded a two-
The Government is giving late
payers another free pass
Kelly Tolhurst MP, small business minister, delivered a statement to the
House of Commons in June 2019, announcing measures to ensure that
businesses get paid on time.
In July 2019, Oliver Dowden MP, minister for implementation, reiterated
this ambition by announcing that government suppliers must pay 95 per
cent of their invoices within 60 days, or run the risk of being prevented
from securing future government contracts.
Yet only a month later and after some late payers were reinstated to
the prompt payment code, the Governments small business crown
representative, Martin Traynor, has rolled back on previous commitments,
suggesting that companies can pay a quarter of their supply chain late in the
previous two reporting periods, without consequence.
Housing minister Esther McVey MP has called on pupils receiving their
GCSE results to join the construction industry in a bid to help boost Britain’s
capacity to build 300,000 new homes.
McVey said: “If you want to master a trade, financial stability and
opportunities across the country, you can’t go wrong with the construction
sector. I’m determined to get Britain building the homes we need, and my
message to school leavers is: your country needs you, to get Britain building
again.”
5
While increasing overall (to +3), the
private housing sector forecast varied
significantly by region this month: in
London the private housing sector forecast
dropped to -18, whereas in the North of
England it rose to +32.
The commercial sector workload forecast
dropped to -2, the fifth time in the past 12
months that the commercial sector forecast
has been negative, and the community
sector returned a balance of -1.
Welsh Construction
Industry Is
Teetering
The pace of growth among local builders in Wales
has slowed and enquiries about future projects
are starting to dry up, according to the Federation
of Master Builders (FMB) Cymru.
Key results from the FMB’s State of Trade
Survey for Q2 2019, which is the only quarterly
assessment of the UK-wide SME construction
sector, include:
• UK-wide, there was a decrease in
employment levels among small construction
firms for the first time in more than five
years with over one fifth (21%) of employers
reporting a reduced workforce;
• UK-wide, after a difficult start to 2019,
workloads for construction SMEs grew
slightly compared with the previous quarter
with more employers (27%) reporting higher
workloads than in the first quarter of this
year (22%);
• In Wales, in terms of the overall score
for workloads, expected workloads and
enquiries, there was a big drop of 24
percentage points compared with the
previous quarter;
• Bricklayers are the trade in shortest supply
with nearly two-thirds (60%) of construction
SMEs struggling these tradespeople and 54%
struggling to hire carpenters and joiners.
Quoted in building.co.uk, Treynor said: “The 75% figure is about reality”.
NFB welcomes McVey’s
pledge urging GCSE students
to consider a career in
construction
point fall to +3.