State of the economy - Good or poor?

[DNgroundworks]

Busy here,

I read a quote on here by Luton a while back that read something like "i gave up on the cheap end years ago" ive followed suit. I stick with the landscape architect/RHS judge, the developer and the equestrian place and that keeps me flat out. The architect im working for has looked and surveyed 5 jobs this week.....and got them all!

The domestic side round here is saturated with contractors working for £120 a day, no margin, running round like headless bloody chickens. There must be 50 lads/firms in my local town and surrounding area all doing the same thing

[Captain Concrete]

The Boom is back soon to be followed by the biggest crash ever due in about 2018, so make hay while the sun shines and don't waste it on flash cars.

[lutonlagerlout]

like you captain I have been through the 89-92 and the recent 08-12 recession and have lost count of the amount of mates who were coining and it then went skint overnight

I had 4 calls and 3 emails about jobs at the weekend

amazing what a bit of sun does

nobody seems happy when i say booked up till august

LLL :;):

[GB_Groundworks]

like you captain I have been through the 89-92 and the recent 08-12 recession and have lost count of the amount of mates who were coining and it then went skint overnight

I had 4 calls and 3 emails about jobs at the weekend

amazing what a bit of sun does

nobody seems happy when i say booked up till august

LLL :;):

Last year I tried to be everything to everyone 8-10 guts on 3 sites I was just driving round dealing with problems not much got done and to a lower standard,

Turned down two large £100k+ tenders already this year I'm sticking to 1 job at a time, learn from last years mistakes.

Also having to Sue a guy for £5k final payment takes the shine off it when you've gone out your way for ppl.

Think I'm airing more to the commercial side now a days doing my nebosh level 5 and moving towards to Chas accreditation hopefully.

Kinda miss nice little landscaping jobs making stuff look nice

Last year was a good learning experience no one does it like you do it

[bobbi o]

In sweaty sock land, we live in a perpetual recession, so the recent ones haven't affected me. we continue to plod on.

was in a engineering/mechanic workshop the other week, an old established business that I haven't been in for years. The guy still smokes café cremes behind the counter, as he serves you.

Was saying to him that i'd been coming to him for years to get stuff fixed and he said "Aye I've been here 35 years now, but am no any further on "

Think that's the scary thing about being in business, that time passes in a flash, yet it can feel sometimes that you haven't actually achieved very much !

[lutonlagerlout]

a very poignant piece there bobbi,
I dont know about you but I work to live, rather than live to work
no towbar on a hearse
LLL

[lutonlagerlout]

nearly 3 years on from my last post here and I feel the winds of change in the economy again
inquiries have dropped dramatically since around november
architects are returning calls
good few lads I know have no work
We have around 6-7 weeks booked then a few tenders out

dont want to be a doom and gloom merchant,but feel things might be on the turn again
or it could just be the shite winter weather? :;):
whats it like in your part of the country ?
cheers LLL

[seanandruby]

Seems ok down sarf so far, money picked up at last. Turned round this morning ans thought
F#!* it till Monday too cold and icy :;): :O

[exoticpete]

Leads still coming in but do feel the winds of change are overdue, let's face we are due another 'correction' scary thing is this time no one has any money to prop it all up, and we cannot print anymore money.

70s here we come excellent..... disco,punk,funk 4 day week power cuts, crazy paving and spam fritters not sure how the feckless are going to deal with actually working though once the welfare tap is switched off :p

[lutonlagerlout]

a lot of big crowds seem to be feeling the pinch,prezzo, jamie oliver,maplins it goes on
costs are rising but wages are not and that is when people get discretionary with spending
gone through 3 "corrections" now and after the 1989 one swore i would never be skint again,or forced to work for peanuts ( as I was then at times)
lets hope it doesnt come but as soon as house prices start dropping,it will come
my wife lets houses for an agency and has had hardly any inquiries this year,a lot of east europeans are going home
we shall see,fingers crossed
LLL

[Tony McC]

No one knows what's going to happen with Brexit, least of all the clueless government, and so no-one wants to risk spending their capital.

Party politics aside, the key role of *any* govt is to provide security for the population, but with there being no stated position from govt on what we can expect from Brexit, we have no security. Big businesses won't invest; small enterprises won't raise wages becuse they don't know what the labour market will be like; homeowners won't splash out on home improvements because they may well need that few quid in the 'rainy day' account if, as some predict, the cost of living is going to spiral uncontrollably upwards.

All we get is "brexit means brexit" and "it's all Europe's fault". The nation voted to jump blindly off a cliff, into the great unknown, driven by the insatiable bigotry of the right-wing press and politicians and their red bus ful of lies, compounded by the cosy presumptions and lazy blind faith of the pro-EU lot.

We, at the very least, ought to have been told just what the alternative to the EU would entail, but no one, whether they were leavers or remainers, tory, labour, lib dem or ukipper, bothered with the detail, so we end up with 12 months to go and we still don't know what's in store for us. The nation voted for what it *didn't* want, but not for what it *did* want.

The one thing all businesses require is certainty. We need to know interest rates won't sudenly shoot up, or there'll be no access to foreign workers to do the shitty jobs none of the Brits seem keen on, or we'll be facing unregulated imports from the US at prices we can't even compete with.

So, until we get told just what is going to happen - and no two cabinet members seems to be able to agree just what that is - we all play safe with our dosh, and we're in for a rocky 12 months.

It doesn't really matter whether you're a leaver or a remainer. It's the uncertainty that is the killer. Once we know just how much shit we are in, we can all begin to plan accordingly.

[lemoncurd1702]

There's a lot with the EU that is not great. But I would be rather in than out.
Roll on another recession

[Tony McC]

There's hell of a lot wrong with the EU, but you can't change it if you're not in it, and now we face the prospect of having to largely abide by its rules and regulation yet have buggerall say in drafting those rules and regulations, all so we can fulfill the neo-liberal dream of unfettered capitalism.

[dig dug dan]

There's hell of a lot wrong with the EU, but you can't change it if you're not in it, and now we face the prospect of having to largely abide by its rules and regulation yet have buggerall say in drafting those rules and regulations, all so we can fulfill the neo-liberal dream of unfettered capitalism.

i hate discussing this subject, but why do we have to stick to rules from them if we are not in it? who says so??

anyway, back on subject, been slow to pick up, but things are happening here. I added a fourth crusher to the fleet, and its proved worthwhile. loads of building work going on left right and centre

[Tony McC]

If you want to trade with the EU, and somewhere around half of Britain's trade is with them, then you have to meet their requirements, or they'll get whatever it is from someone else.

When you're inside the tent, you get a say on just what those requirements might be. When you're outside, it's a simply matter of comply or bugger off!

Still, good to hear things are busy enough for you. It's been sluggish on the consultancy/design side of the trade for a few months, but as of last week, it has, as bloody usual with the onset of Spring (allegedly), gone doo-sodding-lally!

It's always feast or famine in this game - it's rarely, if ever, just the right amount of work!