IF STEADY increases continue in the South East’s private housing construction sector, they could help cool the market, according to new Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors research.

The latest RICS survey shows that chartered surveyors working in the region’s construction industry have reported a slowdown in the rate of increase for the second quarter.

The weakest segment is private commercial activity, which fell for the second quarter in a row, closely followed by infrastructure activity and the industrial sector.

The latest quarter, to June, has also seen a slowdown in the rate of activity in public works, for both housing and non-housing. The overall slowdown in workload growth has helped ease the incidence of skills shortages further, although bricklayers are still greatly in demand and plumbers are proving the hardest trade for construction firms to recruit.

Expectations for employment and workloads remain upbeat for both the next quarter and 12 months ahead, though there are worries over a possible squeeze on profit margins.

Across the country, the construction industry is being kept in good health by massive public spending. Recent figures from the Office of Economic Co-operation and Development shows that health spending in Britain has grown faster than almost any other developed country over the last decade.

David Tuffin, RICS South East chairman, said: “Government plans for this high investment to continue over the next few years will engender further confidence in the construction sector. Raising levels of public investment has long term benefits that go deep into the fibre of a nation, enhancing the UK private sector’s ability to deliver and compete by providing a well educated, healthy, and well trained workforce.

“This spending is good and necessary, but it would be useful to the South East if more was directed to this region. The only questions that remain are the methods the government has chosen to deploy the money, particularly with issues of quality in public/private partnerships which account for nine and a half billion pounds of the health and education construction spend currently in effect.”