Anyone Want to Know What Its Like Working on a Building Site Nowadays

tesuhoha

Well, I've posted before about the building industry in decline. My husband has always worked on sites as a plumber working for contractors. He's worked hard all his life for our family. We've had a good living out of it.

Well, this last year he has hung on going from contractor to contractor and back again to keep in work. His wages have more than halved, the prices have been cut and cut. Now he is working an 8 hour day for less than the minimum wage. With this he has to pay for all his tools, his van, upkeep of the van, Gas Safe Register, and courses to stay up to date (£1,000 a time), public liabililty insurance of 2 million etc, etc, that is before the mortgage and food. He goes to work when hes ill because he doesnt get sick pay or holiday pay etc.

Its not just my husband who is living like this, its all the other trades too, electricians, bricklayers, kitchen fitters, dry liners, the list goes on, all their wages have been cut back drastically and they are the lucky ones who are in work. In the South East there are thousands of tradesmen out of work because this is where the building boom was. Now building has all but stopped. Some of the biggest companies have no work in front of them and every week they lay off more and more people. My brother-in-law has just been laid off this week. He's 61, worked all his life but like many other people cannot afford to retire at this age.

They were talking on this site the other day about tradespeople finding lots of private work, well I don't know where that was but its not here. Everyone competes for work here. My colleague at work phoned up a plumber the other day and he said 'I'll be there in 5 minutes.' and he was.

What concerns me is how can the British economy manage without the building industry? It was our biggest industry before the crash. All of those tradespeople who used to earn good money were paying a lot of tax into the economy. Now a great many of them are unemployed, not paying taxes but claiming benefits instead. Not only that they generated other work, suppliers, lorry drivers, etc. Further afield they had buying power, computers, clothes, cars, Christmas, holidays, home improvements etc so keeping retail staff and factory workers in employment who also paid taxes and are now claiming the dole. All of that spending power is gone, I for instance am afraid to spend money on anything because for the last year he has been teetering on the edge of unemployment. This loss of revenue must be enormous.

The banks are refusing to lend mortgages and it is the banks who put and who are keeping this country in recession. They went from one extreme to the other. If they started lending sensibly building would eventually start again and it would generate a lot of employment outwards. Its so simple.

Pobby

Thanks for that post. Member of my family is in the same game as your husband, also in the South East, running a roofing gang of I think 4 people. Not sure what he earns but the IR was after £28k of tax for 2007/ 2008, so a fair bit. I know that work is down, sis-in - law moans a bit about it, but then she would. Ya gotta change ya plasma on a regular basis, lol. However, and being serious, I think he is doing fairly well.

To be honest I am amazed at how it keeps it all going. He takes work on from subbies I understand. Maybe he is bucking the trend, I don`t know. Hope so as his 21 year old son has got himself a £170k mortgage.

From where I am sitting, I think your post reflects far more clearly what the situation is really like.

Btw, I have heard that that some. in my area where I live, are coming in with quotes based on cash only.

curlygirl1971

Thanks for the post - interesting and disheartening reading. My dad worked in the building trade all his life so I know how hard it can be even when the going is 'good'. It does annoy me when I hear people make comments like 'Ah well so-and-so's a builder/plumber/joiner so he must be minted'. It just doesn't work out like that for everyone.

Incidentally does he do domestic work in the Gtr Manchester area?!

tesuhoha

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Thanks for the post - interesting and disheartening reading. My dad worked in the building trade all his life so I know how hard it can be even when the going is 'good'. It does annoy me when I hear people make comments like 'Ah well so-and-so's a builder/plumber/joiner so he must be minted'. It just doesn't work out like that for everyone.

Incidentally does he do domestic work in the Gtr Manchester area?!

No, its too far I'm afraid.

You are right. The building trade is always extremely vulnerable to the current climate, to the boom and bust and no one can be sure of a job even in the good times. We have never had that security although usually manage to survive. Even that I am beginning to wonder about. This recession is worse than the 90s, maybe because there was no immigration then. Now they also have to compete with Eastern European workers. They are still working on building sites when English people are out of work. I have nothing against them at all; they are just taking an opportunity that is offered them. They will work for a lot less but the English have to pay to live. A lot of the money earned is being sent out of the country. I blame the Government not the foreign workers though.

edgex

tesuhoha wrote: »

What concerns me is how can the British economy manage without the building industry? It was our biggest industry before the crash. All of those tradespeople who used to earn good money were paying a lot of tax into the economy. Now a great many of them are unemployed, not paying taxes but claiming benefits instead. Not only that they generated other work, suppliers, lorry drivers, etc. Further afield they had buying power, computers, clothes, cars, Christmas, holidays, home improvements etc so keeping retail staff and factory workers in employment who also paid taxes and are now claiming the dole. All of that spending power is gone, I for instance am afraid to spend money on anything because for the last year he has been teetering on the edge of unemployment. This loss of revenue must be enormous.

The banks are refusing to lend mortgages and it is the banks who put and who are keeping this country in recession. They went from one extreme to the other. If they started lending sensibly building would eventually start again and it would generate a lot of employment outwards. Its so simple.

First they came for the shipbuilders, and I did not speak out—because I was not a shipbuilder;
Then they came for the weavers, and I did not speak out—because I was not a weaver;
Then they came for the engineers, and I did not speak out—because I was not an engineer;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.




banks are ran by people
their customers are people

people are stupid and are unable to think of the long-term
its all 'now now now' & 'i have the right to...'

tesuhoha

edgex wrote: »

First they came for the shipbuilders, and I did not speak out—because I was not a shipbuilder;
Then they came for the weavers, and I did not speak out—because I was not a weaver;
Then they came for the engineers, and I did not speak out—because I was not an engineer;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.




banks are ran by people
their customers are people

people are stupid and are unable to think of the long-term
its all 'now now now' & 'i have the right to...'

Me being the wa- bankers I hope.

baileysbattlebus

Interesting post, thanks.

We're in the south east too, and my son is a chippie, he was laid off from a big site at the beginning of this year - he was out of work a couple of months - before the novelty of being at home and the reality of JSA really kicked in.

He got work through an old school friend whose family run a small building firm (it's often who you know, he met him on one of his rare nights out in town) - the work initially was only for a couple of weeks - but it has gone on for months. He is now chasing suppliers/ordering etc as well as working.

I think one of things that helped is that he is also a scaffolder (ticketed) and has saved them a lot of money.

He is on a good day rate - when he was on the big site he was on price work and could make more money than he does now. But he's just happy to be working. And the small company he is working for has always had work in the time he has been with them - so they must be doing reasonably well. One thing he is doing now is saving his money - he was a prolific spender before he was laid off - now he realises he needs some money behind him.

One of his friends is a dry liner and stuggling a bit, he usually manages to get a couple of days a week, but he has family so it's not great.

tesuhoha

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

Interesting post, thanks.

We're in the south east too, and my son is a chippie, he was laid off from a big site at the beginning of this year - he was out of work a couple of months - before the novelty of being at home and the reality of JSA really kicked in.

He got work through an old school friend whose family run a small building firm (it's often who you know, he met him on one of his rare nights out in town) - the work initially was only for a couple of weeks - but it has gone on for months. He is now chasing suppliers/ordering etc as well as working.

I think one of things that helped is that he is also a scaffolder (ticketed) and has saved them a lot of money.

He is on a good day rate - when he was on the big site he was on price work and could make more money than he does now. But he's just happy to be working. And the small company he is working for has always had work in the time he has been with them - so they must be doing reasonably well. One thing he is doing now is saving his money - he was a prolific spender before he was laid off - now he realises he needs some money behind him.

One of his friends is a dry liner and stuggling a bit, he usually manages to get a couple of days a week, but he has family so it's not great.

Its the same with my husband, he's managed to stay in work because he has all the gas qualifications and he's useful to them. At present he says he's just grateful to have a job and to be earning something to help pay the bills. I'm glad your son is managing to survive. We are managing because I am working too and I do try to save as much as I can to get a buffer in front of us. I think the dry liner is typical of many, a few days of work here and there.

tesuhoha

Pobby wrote: »

Thanks for that post. Member of my family is in the same game as your husband, also in the South East, running a roofing gang of I think 4 people. Not sure what he earns but the IR was after £28k of tax for 2007/ 2008, so a fair bit. I know that work is down, sis-in - law moans a bit about it, but then she would. Ya gotta change ya plasma on a regular basis, lol. However, and being serious, I think he is doing fairly well.

To be honest I am amazed at how it keeps it all going. He takes work on from subbies I understand. Maybe he is bucking the trend, I don`t know. Hope so as his 21 year old son has got himself a £170k mortgage.

From where I am sitting, I think your post reflects far more clearly what the situation is really like.

Btw, I have heard that that some. in my area where I live, are coming in with quotes based on cash only.

Its reassuring to hear that people are managing to get by.

bo_drinker

Eastern Euros will live 12 to a house to keep overheads down and send the bulk of the money home. This has been the case for years now they are not interested in putting anything back only the bare minimum. So money has pi55ed out of the UK for years now and they are still doing the jobs of our blokes. Even the gov't admit to getting it wrong !!!!!!. The E E's have taken the cream long ago and many have gone now there's fk all else to milk. I have said this time and time again going back to the better times as well, they did not want to put money back in the system and got away with it. No one on here will convince me this is right.

tomstickland

Shhhh. You're supposed to say glib things like "Polish plumbers are amazing, they work so hard for half the money." Fair enough, they might do, but that's because they are prepared to live on the cheap for a few years in conditions that someone with a family would not consider viable.

I don't hold a personal grudge against them for doing this, but the way that middle classes (including politicians) only saw it as a wonderful thing and ignored the pressure it put on the uk workers. It's only in the last year or so that it's been socially acceptable to talk about any negative effects of a lack of immigration policy.