With the latest Business Tendency Survey revealing an increasingly gloomy picture for the Jersey construction industry, the Construction Council wants Jersey’s government to begin immediately the release of further stimulus funding and bring forward capital projects to kick-start the island’s economy.
JeCC Chairman Martin Holmes said the survey results gave a strong message to government and supported everything the Council had been urging during the past year – namely, that there is a desperate need for the States to accelerate the release of capital projects to maintain the industry.
Mr Holmes said: ‘We believe that 2012 is going to be the worst year of the entire recession for the construction sector, where confidence is already low and projects are stalled. He also highlights the desperate need for affordable housing, an issue which has come to the fore in the latest release of Census findings’.
Mr Holmes also said: ‘Capital spending is one of the most effective tools at the government’s disposal when it comes to stimulating the economy and securing long-term recovery. The construction sector is the island’s fourth largest sector, employing 10% of the Jersey workforce. Every £1 spent is worth £2.84 to the wider economy.’
The December 2011 Business Tendency Survey revealed negative results across all indicators of the construction sector and seven of the indicators were more negative than in the previous quarter’s survey. In particular, business optimism and future employment were at their most negative levels in the two years since the survey has run.
