Destruction of the Building Industry

bo_drinker

Probably very true but this time it is all the way across the board. In reality the jobs I spoke about being shelved was because of them wanting finance and not being able to get it or bitten off more than they can chew. Tough times ahead, but I will happily move on, many will struggle and wait for the up turn. Don't hold your breath.

Thriftybabe where are you ???

CLAPTON

leveller2911 wrote: »

The problem was that other countries were giving subsidies to their industries, grants etc to implement new technology ,we didn't we let ours rot.

You will not see a new manufacturing base of any size in this country because it isn't important to the government,all they have wanted was for London to be the financial centre of the world and they don't give a fig for anywhere outside London.

It's difficult to see exactly what the situation really was.
Certtainly the Germany bought Germany goods,
the French bought french goods,
the Brits didn't unless 'forced' to.
For many years the Government forced the public sector (nationalised industries) to buy British.. even when it was very poor quality...
All nationalise industries bought British cars even if they were rubbish, ..they bought steel from British Steel even if they simply stacked it up and didn't use it and then bought other stuff from abroad... etc.

So the Government did support British Industry but that wasn't enough.
I'm not sure what the solution is , but the Governement is usually a very poor chooser of future success.

A_fiend_for_life

SingleSue wrote: »

They solved that by 1986, they were shoving us all onto YTS schemes...I was a renegade and refused to go on one and instead worked in an amusement arcade for £13 a week more (quite a sizeable amount then really!)

I was always of an independent mind...careers officer didn't much like me :rotfl:

Thanks for the reminder. :eek:

Though the company I worked for did pay me £45 a week so not so bad. Kept me out of the house on Friday and Saturday night.

Thrugelmir

tesuhoha wrote: »

Thatcher destroyed the manufacturing industry in this country and now this government have all but destroyed the building industry. There are a lot of construction workers now in the dole queue because there is no work for them. That goes for all trades. The only people who are working are the contractors that are undercutting everyone else and they are only employing the cream of the industry at present on very low wages.

Well, some of you will no doubt say, that's good isn't it? About time their wages went down. I don't know, is it so good? What about all the people who are unemployed who are on training courses for the construction industry? I think the government has omitted to tell them that there are no jobs. What about the newly redundant business people who have paid thousands of pounds to train as electricians, plumbers etc thinking that they will have a good living at the end of it all. They are wasting their money, there is no money in it any more. What about the non-academic school kids who leave school each year and say I want to be a brickie, a sparks, a plumber. There is nothing for them. They will swell the dole queues, cause trouble because they have no work. Its already bad and its going to get worse. This country has nothing to offer its workers any more, the real jobs are becoming less and less. Factories are closing down.

Once the housing market picks up it will not get better because then we will have an influx of immigrant workers who will come in and undercut the British workers, which is what has been happening. Again you may say that this is a good thing but many of them are unskilled with forged documents and they find it a lot easier to disappear into the sunset with your hard earned cash than a British worker who has to have documentation etc, CSCS card, Gas Safety etc, etc.

Also tradespeople can't make it on their own now as there is so much competition from others who are unemployed. Its gone the same way as the manufacturing industry. Years ago people used to mock the unions and hate them but now they have forgotten all that and complain about the lack of a manufacturing industry in this country and the lack of jobs. It has now got even worse. You may not have liked the housing boom but the employment of a lot of people rested on it.

Why not blame the EEC for the freedom of movement of workers ?

Rochdale_Pioneers

What happened in the 80s was simple. Thatcher introduced free market doctrines to British industry, a large number of heavy manufacturing operations which had stagnated and grown lazy under the auspices of communist union agitators. Making them efficient was needed - lets not doubt that.

But they were made to compete in the "free market". And there was no free market - as subsidy was removed from UK steel, coal, shipbuilding etc etc it was maintained across Europe. That made our industries hugely uncompetitive and surprise surprise they closed. From a dogmatic perspective that wasn't an issue - the free market is the most efficient way to run things and must do its thing.

I do find it baffling that free market loons are now bemoaning our lack of industry on the scale of Germany or Japan when it was their dogmatic nonsense that threw them away.

RHYSDAD

My brother is a self employed joiner/carpenter and, luckily for him, has work coming out of his ears. He has no overheads as far as premises go, he uses mum's very large garage which doubles as his workshop and has his own van bought and paid for. He's all over the country at the moment, he's back up to Nottingham next week to carry on with a big job up there. He specialises in listed building work and has work coming in from all over.....
I think specialising in the listed building work is what's keeping him going.

alared

The building industry destroyed itself with runaway rip off house prices and over inflated estimates for any contracts going.
As for all these poor out of work tradesmen,where are they?
For the last four weeks I`ve been trying to get a plumber,plaster,tiler to come and give an estimate for a new bathroom/en suite.
Out of six,three didn`t turn up,one gave a fantasy price and the other two added so many if`s and but`s that it was pretty obvious they didn`t want to do the whole job.
What these so-called tradesmen want is to come round do a quick fix for £100 and clear off.
Five of these jobs a day,couple of grand a week,great work being a "tradesman"/cowboy.

Radsteral

alared where did you pick these 6 tradesmen? yellow pages? or local free newspaper.? or free handwritten leaflets distributed to your doorstep )
Why dont you try websites who put you in contact with tradesmen with good reputation, and besides, when they finish, you are entitled to leave feedback on the very same website about how the work was completed ... try https://www.myworkman.co.uk

as your funny tradesmen i get clients who invite me to see a job and then for a full roof, a loft conversion , a boiler reposition and quite a bit of rewiring puts his price down as '' i dont wanna pay more than 14 000 for it! and think a big semi and just the materials and scaffold would go 10.000.
well unlike this government , i have tried to save and my savings would cover me for 2-3 years without working a single day ... i wont work for free though.

some times i do a small job for 100 quid but just think , the costumer turns out to pay by cheque, so 20 pounds are tax, 20 pounds are materials and diesel, and gone half of the day or more .
it may look at lot 60 quid a day to someone but since i have 20 years on the tools , and give guarantee for every job, i wouldnt wanna work for peanuts .

bo_drinker

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Why not blame the EEC for the freedom of movement of workers ?

They haven't helped the situation neither have agencies.

bo_drinker

alared wrote: »

The building industry destroyed itself with runaway rip off house prices and over inflated estimates for any contracts going.
As for all these poor out of work tradesmen,where are they?
For the last four weeks I`ve been trying to get a plumber,plaster,tiler to come and give an estimate for a new bathroom/en suite.
Out of six,three didn`t turn up,one gave a fantasy price and the other two added so many if`s and but`s that it was pretty obvious they didn`t want to do the whole job.
What these so-called tradesmen want is to come round do a quick fix for £100 and clear off.
Five of these jobs a day,couple of grand a week,great work being a "tradesman"/cowboy.

It wasn't the building industry that fuelled the runaway house prices there was a demand so they supplied, like any other product. People were buying off plan without a brick laid, so the demand was there. They were brainwashed into the belief that"house prices only ever go up" and therefore they had better buy now.