Gloom still for builders

Press, 8 September 1978, Page 7

Gloom still for builders

Gloom still pervades the building industry. Little improvement is likely in either the short or long term, according to the Building Industry Advisory Council. In its latest newsletter the counpil says that economic! measures taken by the Gov-1 ernment since October last! •year emphasised the! stimulating of consumption' rather thari a restructuring of the economy leading to investing for growth.

“This means that any internal economic recovery will be consumption-led. It is uncertain how long this sort of growth can be maintained before an increasing demand for new imports places undue strain on the country’s balance of payments.” says the council. “For those who derive their livelihood from the building and construction industries the central issue is whether increased consumption spending will improve building demand.

“In the council’s view this is unlikely to be the result in the short term (to March, 1979) because there is unused capacity throughout industry; and it would take a year or more of sustained growth before manufacturers would need to reconsider deferred or abandoned investment programmes.” said the council.

In the longer term, little improvement was expected unless the new growth was sustainable and the net outflow cf population decreased enough to allow population to grow at 1 or 2 per cent per annum. The most likely result over! the next few years was for a period of slow growth, the volume of building recovering slowly from the 1967-68 level, said the council.