Construction industry output dropped 11% in 2009 – the largest annual fall since the three-day week in 1974.
The release of the latest Office for National Statistics’ construction industry statistics reveal the full extent of the construction decline, described by the Construction Products Association (CPA) as “dramatic”.
A further 3% decline is predicted by the CPA this year. This, it says, would mean that by the end of 2010 the industry would have seen an £18bn fall from its peak in mid-2008 – a more rapid decline than in the recession of the mid-1970s.
CPA chief executive Michael Ankers said only the 8% growth in public sector spending on construction prevented the industry from suffering an even more dramatic downturn.
