NI builders call on politicians to tackle credit drought

Political leaders in the North today are being asked to help local building firms and contractors get easier access to bank loans.

The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), the UK’s largest trade association in the building industry, says local builders and construction SMEs are suffering because of a “blanket discrimination by banks”.

Maire Nawaz, Northern Ireland director of the FMB, said regardless of how healthy their accounts may be many building firms are still getting turned down by banks.

Ms Nawaz said building firms in the North are also not benefitting from UK government-backed initiatives designed to support the construction sector.

"This includes the British Business Bank, which is available in England, and is designed to counteract the reluctance of banks to lend to small construction firms. The construction industry is a key driver of growth but at present, it is not being properly utilised by the Northern Ireland Executive – this has to change," she said.

According to the FMB construction currently accounts for around 10 per cent of the North’s total annual output and provides nearly one in ten of all local jobs.

It is estimated that around 60,300 people are directly employed in construction industries.

But access to finance is not the only major stumbling block the local construction sector is up against according to the FMB.

Ms Nawaz says a constant exodus of construction workers leaving the North to work on projects in other parts of the UK is creating its own problems.

"The Northern Ireland construction industry is trailing behind the rest of the UK and today we're calling on the Executive to urgently put a number of measures in place to boost workloads. While the construction sector stutters in Northern Ireland, we're seeing stronger and more consistent growth in England, Scotland and Wales so it's no surprise our skilled workers are being enticed over to the mainland. Our concern is, will they return to NI if and when we begin to catch up?" she stated.

The FMB today will launch a blueprint document at Stormont detailing what it believes needs to be done to help the construction sector “bounce back from the economic downturn”.

Among the recommendations put forward in the document is a proposal that the Executive should rebalance capital and current spending and commit to building at least 11,000 new homes by 2020.