Workloads for the 40,000 chartered surveyors in the construction sector have fallen for the second successive quarter.
According to the RICS’s construction survey for the second quarter, 29% of chartered surveyors dealing in construction reported rises in workload – a 1% fall on first-quarter figures.
Over 50% said that workloads had not changed, with 18% reporting a decline.
In the private house building market, 20% of chartered surveyors reported an increase in workload.
Only 8% of surveyors experienced greater workloads in the private commercial sector, compared with 6% in the private industrial market.
Activity in the service sector is slowing and work on infrastructure and commercial construction is also falling.
Shortage of skilled labour in the North of England and Scotland was also highlighted as a concern.
The report said that government plans to continue with high investment in the health sector are expected to create “further confidence” in the construction sector.
RICS chief executive, Louis Armstrong, said: “This spending is good and necessary.
“The only questions that remain are the methods the government has chosen to deploy the money, particularly with issues of quality in public/private partnerships which account for £9.5bn of the health and education construction spend currently in effect.”
References: EGi News 30/06/03
