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Building on success
Page 61
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The UK's building industry is rock solid. Domestically, the signs of construction activity are all around us and British building expertise is called upon internationally, too.
Will Mann, a construction journalist from CM'S sister magazine Contract Journal, predicts that the British building industry has a bright future: "It is healthier than most industrial sectors because of a lot of public investment in police stations, schools and hospitals," he says.
Private Finance Initiative (PR) programmes have injected huge amounts of cash into such building projects, he explains: "There is a massive amount of money going into construction. The current boom will last a few years yet."
The government wants hundreds of thousands of homes to be built, and trucks are central to this wish. Tippers most obviously spring to mind, but you need low-loaders to carry plant and steel, flats to carry bricks, and mixers to transport concrete, too.
Payment varies from company to company, but Mann warns that even the household names of the construction firms can be late payers. However, with a business so awash with money, haulers are less likely to be battered by bad debts than in some other sectors.
Mann mentions some impressive figures. There are 50 construction firms with a turnover of over £100m in Britain, and 200 with a turnover of between £10m-£100m.