Wed 9 Jul 2008
Housebuilder jobs continue to be cut
The economic and housing downturn, which has led to a significant fall in consumer demand and completions of house sales, is having a detrimental affect on the housebuilding sector, with thousands of jobs being cut.Bovis Homes and Redrow are the latest housebuilders to announce job reductions. The pair have announced that they will cut around 40% of their workforce.
Bovis will dispose of about 400 office and site-based jobs, while Redrow will cut some 550 jobs as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures.
Persimmon says that it has already discarded around 2,000 jobs since the start of the year, including 1,100 office jobs and 900 site-based jobs.
Persimmon said that its job cuts would save around £65m per year, enabling the company to cope more "efficiently" with its downturn in business, in light of the fact that revenue is down by up to 34% and sales on its order book are around 30% lower than at this time last year.
The firm said: "We now have a lower level of overheads and structure appropriate for the current levels of business, whilst at the same time remaining well placed to achieve an increase in output whenever mortgage availability and the overall market improves."
A further 2,000 jobs are being shed by Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments, as a consequence of the troubled UK property market.
Inevitably, many of the smaller housebuilders are also feeling the pinch from the current house market slump. The Inverness-based housebuilder Tulloch Homes, for example, has announced plans to cut 40 jobs across its Scottish operations.
With market analysts forecasting that the housing slowdown will continue during the foreseeable future, more jobs from the housebuilding industry are likely to be slashed over the coming months.
Posted by Marc Da-Silva
in Barratt Development, Bovis Homes, News, Persimmon Homes, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, Tulloch Homes on Wed 9 Jul 2008
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