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If sales of underground drainage are anything to go by, the building trade is beginning to show signs of a sustained recovery, according to Spencer Priestley of Professional Building Supplies, the Colchester based drainage specialist. Priestley explains; "As drainage is normally the one of first products to be used on site during the build process, it's a reasonably good indicator of the level of activity in the local area within a given area. At Professional Building Supplies, we have seen a steady increase in drainage sales within the last six to eight weeks. Most of our sales are to local builders and developers, both in the new build and refurbishment sectors, so it is fair to say that things are picking up. As our customers' build programmes progress, we should see corresponding increases in structural products such as windows and doors, and internal fit out products. The final stage, roofline materials and gutters, usually register the increase around eight to ten weeks further down the line." Whilst Priestley accepts that the whole building sector has been hard hit by the recession, he points out that this has happened before. "Building is notoriously cyclical. The sector had had a good run after the recession of the early 90's, and it was due for a fall. The worldwide downturn and the banking crisis only acted as a catalyst for the inevitable. You only have to look to the history books to see that peaks and troughs are par for the course in the long term, and we have fallen from a high peak into a very low trough." Priestley is however optimistic about the medium term. "Whilst we still have a hard road ahead of us, there is no reason to doubt that the sector will recover, and even surpass previous levels. One thing we do have in this country is sustainable demand. The current housing stock is insufficient to meet medium term demand, even before you add in the growing population factor. Add to that the refurbishment programme that is needed to bring the standard of social housing into the 21st century, and it all points to increased activity. We believe that recovery is now underway. Customer traffic through our trade counter was up by 40% in the last month alone; this was also borne out by our internet sales, particularly of underground drainage." Priestley accepts that his forecast has a regional bias; "If you read about housebuilding in the national press, you are generally reading about the big players, housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. This is because they have an obligation to report to the city on a regular basis, and therefore information for media distribution is easy to come by. It's far harder to gauge activity at a micro or regional level, so the general public are under the impression that the national Housebuilders are representative of the whole sector, which can be very misleading." If Priestley's analysis of Professional Building Supplies sales is correct, the green shoots are now beginning to appear amongst the freshly dug drainage trenches.
Spencer Priestley is managing director of a specialist supplier of building materials. supplying amongst other things, Drainage, Soil and waste, and various Eco building products
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