16
JULY 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
BREXIT – CATASTROPHE OR
BUSINESS AS USUAL?
The dust is settling over the historic Brexit vote in the EU referendum – but the full impact 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.
Since then, David Cameron, Boris
Johnson and Nigel Farage have
a ll resigned and a protest march
against the Brexit vote attracted a
huge turnout in central London.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Labour party then lurched into crisis
as a raft of frontbenchers resigned,
backing a no confidence vote in
leader Jeremy Corbyn.
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.
Here, we share some of the news
and views.
CONSTRUCTION
MORE VOLATILE
Monika Slowikowska, founder of
Golden Houses Developments – a
specialist in high-end residential
projects - believed Britain leaving
the EU would have a catastrophic
effect on the construction industry.
Monika Slowikowska,
founder of Golden Houses
Developments
She was worried about the effect
on EU funded projects, and said
pots of money like 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.
“The same applies to buying
building materials from our European partners. Currently, 59% of
the building materials we import
come from EU 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 non-UK 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 sus-