Building sector ‘bulldozed’ and new car sales plummet
Britain’s battered economy suffered a double blow today as figures showed work on construction sites plummeting at its fastest rate since the financial crisis and new car sales almost halved.
A closely watched survey of output in the construction sector revealed the steepest fall since March 2009, when builders and developers were starved of finance by the banking collapse.
The IHS Markit Index of activity fell from 52.6 in February to 39.3 in March. A reading above 50 indicates growth but below 50 points to contraction.
Duncan Brock, group director at the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, which helps to compile the monthly survey, said the shutdown of building sites “mercilessly bulldozed” any hopes that the sector could ride out the crisis.
He added: ”With no upturn in sight, the sector is stuck in the quicksand and sinking further. The brutality of this impact cannot be underestimated, and the sector has not yet hit rock bottom yet.”
Meanwhile new car sales fell at their fastest rate on record in a month that is normally one of the strongest of the year. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said registrations were down 44.4 per cent, a steeper decline than during the financial crisis and the worst March since the current system of twice-a-year plate changes was introduced in 1999.
The drop would have been more severe but for the fact that advance orders for the new 20 plate were delivered in the early part of the month, the SMMT said.
In Italy, which went into lockdown two weeks ahead of Britain on 9 March, new car sales are down 85 per cent, while in France they dropped 72 per cent and in Spain 69 per cent.
