in the early nineties i went from earning 90 pounds per day to 30 pounds a day in 18 months. the building trade has and always will be the same great in the good times dire in the bad plus dont forget in times of rain,frost you are often sent home with no pay at all i think there are very few brickies on on the figures you mention.

steve, swindon, england

Did anyone seriously believe Labour were ever going to get 3million houses built?

Seriously?

Remember, a two bed flat is not a house.
It may be a home, but it is not a house.

Banks are starting to realise that fact (people already did hence the 25%+ cashback they got) and locking down mortgages in response.

If builders cant sell flats, they wont build them, if they wont build flats, they dont get planning permission at all.

No planning permission, or permission to build something they cant sell forces them to delay as long as possible, the more they delay, the fewer staff they need, the fewer staff, the lower the wages.

House building is always pretty cyclical, well, it was until Brown promised no more Boom and Bust...

Dominic, Manchester, UK

Those Polish building tradesmen who have recently started moving BACK HOME have shown clever foresight. Really though, the days of easy money for minimum quality and tiny sized new houses are over. The bedrock of the housing market, the first time buyer have been staying away from any commitment. The future prospects are of an increasing supply of homes from BTL investors selling up while the CGT tax has been reduced to 18% together with many more repossesions and Gordon Brown's promise of 3 million new homes in the next couple of years. Who in their right mind would make the largest commitment of their lives to an asset which is loosing value at £1,000 per month currently

David Nammory, Liverpool,

If the housebuilders are cutting back and slowing/stopping construction, whilst tightening the screws on all of their workers and suppliers, who is going to build the many hundreds of thousands of new homes which we are told Britain needs in the next few years?

It isn't that long since John Prescott unveiled enormously ambitious plans for new towns and new areas of development, in places like the Thames Gateway. We were told at the time that those plans were unrealisable, there weren't enough builders and tradesmen in the country to carry out a scheme on that scale.

People all over the country have fought planning battles to prevent their quiet villages being turned into dormitory towns full of incomers, but without the extra social resources, such as schools, that they need.

Is all this now at an end? Without new building to mollify pressures on demand the only reason for a housing price plateau or fall will be a collapse in buyer confidence caused by a recession.

Simon, Stockport,

Other losers in the serious and inevitable decline in the building industry is,of course, Local Authorites who depend on income from the granting of building approvals and licences to provide local services to the public. In Spain it is reported that about 26% of income of local authorities is obtained by the issue of approvals and licences to the building and contruction industry.
Another negative I would suggest is an increase in the layoff of building labourers many of whom are no doubt immigrants and illegal ones at that.

Thomas Stallwood, Malaga, Spain

If "tradies", as they're known here in Australia, are facing the prospect of lower wages and possibly even unemployment in some places they should consider looking at and moving to Australia. The states of Western Australia (already with a high proportion of "british" migrants, many of whom are brickies, sparks, chippies etc) and Queensland are enjoying high levels of economic growth due to the mining and resources boom. As a result there are serious labour shortages in skilled trades. The lifestyle here is more relaxed, the climate superb and opprtunities aplenty.

Paul Maginn, Perth, Western Australia

Its simple supply and demand. T5 is now complete and certainly for the next few years house builders should be able to get their labour at a more reasonable rate until these trades are in demand at the Olympic site.

Build price inflation has been increasing at twice the rate of consumer price inflation for several years, and prices could do with easing up for a while.

Now if only our Planning system could free up more land the industry could find some more significant cost savings in the new housing market.

Adam Evans, Newbury, Berks

I work in the building industry and I don't know of too many brickies on 50000 a year

john jackson, London,

Now that the Polish economy has been kick started with the aid of our money I guess English bricklayers will be able to go to Poland in the near future to earn a decent wage.

Cromwell, Leeds, England

Reducing the pay of brickies from 50,000pa to 45,000pa is hardly what id call a squeeze. These workers must be amongst the few people who earn enough to be able to afford these new rabbit hutches, sorry, homes.

Any how if we have a massive under supply of homes and strong economic fundamentals why should there be a slow down?

Liam, Tynemouth, UK

Maybe we won't be needing as many new houses if the Poles get better wages in Poland.

stephen hulton, eure, france