Scottish builders’ confidence drops as 2015 ends

The latest Scottish Construction Monitor report shows that confidence in the Scottish construction sector has fallen during the final quarter of 2015.

The survey of industry employers, organised by the Scottish Building Federation, asks members to rate how confident they feel about their company’s prospects over the next 12 months, compared to the past year.

Respondents who are more confident about their prospects for the next 12 months compared to the past year has fallen 18%, from 51% in Q3 to 33% this quarter, while those less confident about their firm’s future prospects has risen from 16% in Q3 to 25% this quarter.

Scottish Building Federation managing director, Vaughan Hart, said these results underline “continued concerns amongst employers about the long term sustainability of the revival in industry performance we are currently witnessing.

“As we have highlighted before, there are continuing concerns about the unbalanced performance of the industry at the current time and that, throughout 2015, industry employment rates have continued to lag significantly behind record levels of output.

“As we look ahead to next year’s Scottish Parliament elections, there are a number of critical issues facing the construction industry which we are keen to see politicians across all parties get to grips with. Policy areas such as procurement, planning, capital investment and skills will all have a major influence on the industry’s future. We look forward to debating these issues with candidates in the lead-up to the May elections and to exploring the solutions needed to support the industry over the lifetime of the next Scottish Parliament.”