Fri 30 May 2008
Outlook remains bleak for sector
At the end of another grueling week for the industry, the overall outlook has not greatly improved, as Bovis Homes becomes the latest housebuilder to announce the job cuts it intends to shortly initiate.Bovis is set to make 15%, or 140 members, of its staff redundant, a similar figure to the numbers axed in the last month by Redrow and Bellway. Bovis has said that half-yearly results to June 30 will be “significantly lower” than expected due to a 30% fall in reservations since January.
Figures are also circulating that reveal that deliveries of bricks to building sites have fallen by 13% during 2008’s first quarter, according to data complied by the Construction Products Association (CPA) and the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
Brick manufacturers nationwide are similarly being forced to cut staff and production as housebuilders opt to postpone work on new sites until the market improves. In April, Hanson UK halted production at its Caernarfon brickworks plant, the fourth factory is has closed in 18 months. The firm also hopes to resume production when the market improves.
“Housebuilders appear to be finishing work that was started before the first quarter of this year, but as the lack of new housbuilding feeds through, deliveries are expected to be worse in the second quarter,” said a spokesman for the CPA.
Posted by Natalia Gameson
in Bellway, Bovis Homes, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, News, Redrow on Fri 30 May 2008
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