Brexit woes… April 17, 2019

Is it just me or is everything kind of grinding to a halt?

Up until a few months ago we could hardly keep up with the demand for our services. Order books were full, cashflow was manageable…and the future appeared positive.

Of late, the order books are looking a little sparse, the teams are working at half speed and the cashflow is a little awkward with one or two points of concern in the near future.

I’m not suggesting an ‘end of the world’ scenario yet…. but I am concerned.

You can look at various reasons for the downturn in workload but the one factor which keeps coming up is lack of certainty in the future.

Everybody is just sick to death of the whole Brexit fiasco.

No… surprisingly… I don’t have an answer other than to say I voted ‘remain’.

Developers are not sure whether to do their next project whilst housing and land values may well change over coming months. Home owners are deciding to stay put because they are unsure of where house and property values might change.

Businesses are not sure whether to:

buy that new van or
the new piece of kit they’ve wanted
take on that new surveyor/receptionist/admin person

….because of the uncertain market conditions…

Money doesn’t get spent, the housing market stalls, nobody gets a pay rise, everyone cuts back on spending…

…and lo …we’re in a recession…

Mike C