The UK’s largest residential house-builders have recently announced approximately 5,000 job cuts as the property market continues to struggle.

Over recent months, house-builders have experienced significant falls in the number of properties being sold as the volume of available mortgages has decreased amid stricter lending criteria. In a bid to cut costs, jobs have been cut by the major players in the sector: Bovis Homes (400 jobs), Redrow (450), Taylor Wimpey (900), Barratt Homes (1,200) and Persimmon (2,000)

With the credit crunch unlikely to ease over the next 12 months, challenging times lie ahead for the house building industry with some areas of the media reporting that the industry is on the verge of total collapse. Fears have been raised as to whether developers can continue to honour all their developments in the current climate. One developer, City Lofts Developments, became a casualty of the economic downturn after it was taken into administration.