The banking and financial crisis of 2009 was one of the worst in living memory, and it is going to take the global economy a long time to recover from it. This will vary from country to country, depending on it’s strength, leadership and industry, and this has certainly been the case. Some countries have seemed to bounce back very quickly, like Germany, whilst others have seemed to head the other way, like Greece and Ireland. There have also been marked differences between industries, with some showing booming growth, whilst others seemingly stutter due to lack of confidence. Two good examples of this are the hotel industry, which is estimating 50% growth in many places, to the construction industry which showed an overall drop of 23% for the first quarter of 2011.
This is both good and bad news for the UK economy. However, the construction industry is a baseline from which a lot of new business will be created, both in it’s construction and from the final product. Therefore a fall in construction demand could spell bad news for other parts of the economy. It could also reflect the general fall in demand for new housing, as people stick where they are and look to improve.
Infrastructure was one of the hardest hit areas of the construction industry, with a massive 48% drop. This is an especially bad sign, given that investment in this area could be the key to helping recovery. Much of this drop has been in public sector contracts, which reflects the current goverment’s need to cut costs.
There are several ways that the UK construction industry as a whole can help itself back on the road to recovery, and I believe these come from European countries like Denmark and Germany. The emphasis on efficiency is evident in much of what they design and build. This includes a much higher use of CAD, CAM and pricing software, which makes a much better use of resources all round and helps to improve profits.