As a business that’s been operating within the construction sector for nearly 15 years and undergone considerable growth over the past 4 years, we’re proud to say that our team consists of people who are knowledgeable, highly skilled and experienced about their trade and/or role.
The question we’re asking today, however, is whether that knowledge extends to the construction industry as a whole. Do people know how much the sector contributes to the UK economy, for instance? Or what about how many bricks are delivered across the UK annually?
So, whether you’re working in or associated with construction or just have a liking for random trivia, here’s a quick quiz we’ve designed just for you, with answers further below.
(The facts/ figures we’ve identified are all based on the latest data gathered from the Office for National Statistics and elsewhere for 2018.)
Take Sheriff’s construction quiz now!
Question1: How many construction businesses are there in the UK?
Question2: Which three regions of the UK have the most construction companies?
Question3: How many people are employed in the UK construction industry?
Question4: What percentage of construction workers are bricklayers, masons, roofers and tilers?
Question5: How much does the construction sector contribute to the UK economy?
Question6: How many new homes are built in England each year (excluding conversions)?
Question7: What percentage of housebuilding is built by the top ten housebuilders in the UK?
Question8: How many bricks (all types) are delivered across the UK each year?
Question9: What area would the amount of ready mixed concrete delivered annually to the construction industry cover (in cubic square metres)?
Question10: What are the biggest risks the construction industry is facing now?
Now for the answers:
Question1: Around 300,000 (of which around 39,000 are sole traders and approximately 125,000 only have a single employee).
Question2: London, the South East of England and the South West.
Question3: About 2.9 million people (that’s roughly 10% of the country’s total workforce).
Question4: Surprisingly only 3%! Executive and Managerial roles are the highest percentage (11%), closely followed by metal, electrical and mechanical trades (10%).
Question5: In 2018 the total GDP in the UK was worth 2,825.21 billion US dollars and the construction sector contributed to about 6% of that. You do the math!
Question6: This obviously varies year-to-year but, in 2018, there were 213,660 new build dwellings completed.
Question7: 50% of housebuilding is carried out by the top ten large housebuilders. To give you an idea of how the sector has changed, back in 1960, that percentage was just 9%.
Question8: Again there is variation depending on which year you look at but, in 2018, over 2billion bricks went out for delivery.
Question9: In 2018, that would be over 17million cubic square metres.
Question10: Brexit, skills shortages, changes in regulation/ standards, barriers to the market for smaller housebuilders, availability of finance, vulnerability to changes in the economy – take your pick!
How did you do?
Before researching this week’s blog, we thought we were quite well-informed about the construction sector but have discovered there was lot to learn. We hope you enjoyed taking our quiz and have learnt something too!
16.01.2020
Image source: Freepik
