A future in bricks and mortar

The UK construction industry provides in excess of 10% of the UK's gross domestic product (GDP), employs 1.6 million people and has an output ranked consistently in the global top 10. Any company exposed to the construction sector is finding risk assessment and control increasingly difficult, and resourcing expensive and time consuming. Construction companies, at all points in the industry are failing, and any changes in economic conditions, a withdrawal of government funding, or the imposition of further costs will only exaggerate a problem already impaired by a shortage of skilled labor. Overall, there were 3,509 insolvencies and bankruptcies in England and Wales last year (DTI figures for 2003), involving both the self-employed (1,781) and construction companies (1,728).