Pressure continues on business performance
The business performance of members of the B&ES (Building & Engineering Services Association) is likely to continue to deteriorate in the coming year, according to an independent state-of-trade survey covering the period from July to December 2012. The survey showed a less-rapid drop in turnover during the second half of 2012 than for the first six months of the year.
Members were also less confident about the future, with 10% fewer respondents than six months ago expecting the commercial environment to improve in the short term.
Other findings from the survey were 51% of respondents reporting a further fall in tender prices. 29% reported a continuing decline in direct labour, with the same percentage reporting a reduction in the use of agency labour.
Additional pressure from the rising costs of materials was cited by 62% of respondents and the continuing proliferation of pre-qualification regimes by 34%.
The engagement of apprentices and trainees also fell during the period of the research. A small number of respondents expected to make a greater investment in vocational training over the next six months, albeit from a low base.
There was a fall in the number of respondents involved in installing renewable-energy technologies, down to 63% from 70% six months earlier. Air-source and air-to-air heating pumps continue to be the most popular technologies, followed by solar thermal.
B&ES members believe that the major factors affecting business growth continue to lie in late payment, ever-tighter profit margins and insolvency further up the contractual chain.
Just over 200 members took part in the research.
