The leading voice of the construction industry in Scotland has spoke of its suspicion over the government's latest Scottish GDP figures.

Commenting on the release this morning of GDP figures for Scotland for the first quarter of 2011, Scottish Building Federation Chief Executive Michael Levack said: “Scottish GDP figures for last year apparently show record-breaking growth in output from the construction industry in 2010. I remain highly sceptical that those numbers are anything close to a genuine reflection of the current state of the industry. But the most recent set of figures shows Scottish construction industry output having fallen by almost 5% over the 6 months to March.

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“I think this only emphasises how fragile any recovery in Scottish construction actually is. There is still very weak activity in private housebuilding and the commercial construction sector in particular. Meanwhile, public budgets are being cut and building firms are being put under huge pressure as the levels of public subsidy available to fund construction of housing and other infrastructure are slashed.

“Following some tentative signs of recovery, Scottish construction industry output appears to be nosediving again. We need further Government action – on bank lending, on affordable housing investment and on securing Scottish borrowing powers for capital investment – to prevent this downward trend from continuing for the remainder of 2011.”

(GK)