The construction sector is bracing itself for what looks like will be the first major industry to experience a double dip recession. This is based on the latest forecasted figures from the Construction Products Association. Experts within the CPA estimate residential, as well as commercial builds will continue to drop through the end of 2010, and into the first quarter of next year.

Many are shocked at the sudden turnaround the market has experienced after surging in the first few months of this year.  Expectations were much higher within the residential division, especially due to the low interest rates.

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the Construction Products Association, commented on the industry as a whole, saying: "In 2009, the construction industry suffered its sharpest fall in output since 1974, and while there was a bounce back in the first six months of this year, the figures are deceptive.

"The factors that drove this growth - the short term impact of the last government's fiscal stimulus, a tentative recovery in the housing market, and the start of a number of major projects in the run up to the Election - are not the basis for a long-term recovery."

Although new orders for construction showed a slight move forward for private sector work, they don’t come close to off setting the expected 18 per cent drop in public sector work which will occur over the next two years.

Ankers provided more information on the industry moving forward, saying: "While we can see the prospects for a pick-up in output in 2012 and the following two years," said Ankers, "this recovery is going be slow and will hold back a more rapid growth in the wider economy. Even by 2014, output in the industry will not have recovered to the levels it experienced in 2003."