Plumbers tighten belts, but most still look on bright side!
The Williams & Co 2009 "State of the Trade" Survey shows that despite significant pressures, the trade is responding thoughtfully but without panic.
Median hourly rates for both plumbing and gas work have lost the ground that they made last year, returning almost exactly to where they were 2 years ago, at £30 for plumbing and £35 for gas work. They had peaked at £33 and £40 respectively in the spring of 2008.
When the 2008 survey data was gathered in Q2 2008, just before the recession took hold, nearly 70% of tradesmen expected to increase their prices in the following year. None of the 2008 respondents expected prices to fall. In reality, only 28% now claim to have put their rates up, and 13% bit the bullet and reduced the hourly charge.
In a big change to the trend in recent years, more than half of firms surveyed are now cutting prices to secure work. This represents a doubling of the number who are prepared to compromise on their price to close a deal. The number who admit to doing this "frequently" has increased more than three-fold, rising from 5% to 16%. When we look at the actual rates reported, it appears that some of the rate increases claimed are not sticking, and are being negotiated away to keep work flowing.
Order books are substantially lighter than in 2008, continuing a downward trend from 2007. Two years ago, 28.3% of respondents reported 8 weeks+ work on the books, a figure which dropped to 21.4% in 2008 and plummeted to 14.2% this year.
When asked about the effects of recession, nearly 90% felt that there was a reduction in the overall volume of work, with only 10.3% unaffected. 62.9% felt that this was having a major impact on their business.
Over 2/3rds (68.8%) reported that prices were under pressure, with about half of these feeling that it was having a large impact and 61.5% were finding it harder to collect outstanding bills.
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The credit crunch seems to be having a lesser, but still significant effect. 19.4% said that they found it harder to get credit from suppliers, and over 30% had experienced difficulty obtaining finance from their bank.
Overall, when asked to describe the last 12 months, only 9.8% of respondents chose "poor" or "very poor". 40% opted for "patchy", with just over half describing it as "good" or "very good".
Looking to the future, the respondents were more upbeat. When asked whether they expected to still be in the industry in 5 years time, less than 1% reported that they planned a career change. 13.5% were unsure, with 72.1% saying that they would probably, or certainly, remain in the industry. The remaining 13.5% expected to retire.
When asked about expectations for the immediate future, nearly half (46.2%) expected it to remain much the same. A small pool of optimists (4.3%) expected it to get much better, and 11.5% anticipated a slight improvement. 26.5% thought that things might get a bit worse before they got better, and 11.5% forecast that the sector would get "much worse" in the next 12 months.
Despite what the tabloid press might like us to believe, the "Polish Plumber" didn't feature very highly in the survey. When asked an open question about pressures on the business, less than half of one percent mentioned the issue.
At a local level, boiler engineers in the Portsmouth postcode area get marginally the highest price for their service work, although when it comes to other gas work, Brighton based fitters seem to command a fiver more per hour than their neighbours.
For general plumbing work prices in Guildford and Brighton postcodes seem to be holding up much better than in PO or SO areas. However, there has been a reduction in all areas, roughly in line with the national figures, although rates in the South remain higher than national averages.
(The survey data was gathered between April and June 2009. Total sample size was 235) |
STATE OF THE TRADE SURVEY RESULTS 2009 
