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Engineering takes a hit

Figures released by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) have revealed how the sector has been hit hard by the recession.

About 1,600 jobs have been lost in the North East’s civil engineering sector in the past year - with 1,100 more set to go before the end of the year.

The jobs, which account for about 19% of the region’s total workforce in the sector, have all been shed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they battle crippling factors including late or reduced payments, difficulty in securing lending from banks, and a massive decline in workload.

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), which carried out the research, said more needed to be done to halt the rapid demise of the industry amid the recession.

Douglas Kell, director of CECA North East, said: “It’s when you add up the fallouts you realise the full damage to the sector - 2,700 jobs are either gone or going.

“Six months of half-hearted Government attempts to support, so far, have left our SME firms facing a bleak future.”

In the CECA study of the region’s companies in the civil engineering sector, carried out in April, six months after the Government detailed proposals to spur on the sector with a raft of measures - workloads were found to have dropped 87% this year, with four out of ten firms describing their drop in business as being of ‘significant’ detriment to their operation.

Mr Kell, whose CECA members span from Berwick to Whitby, said: “We urgently need an easing of financial and bureaucratic shackles holding back vital projects.”

Ross Smith, head of policy and research at the North East Chamber of Commerce added: “These findings really emphasise there is a real importance to take action now.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .