The house building industry still has a long way to recover to pre-recession levels, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Results from the FMB's State of Trade Survey for Q3 2014 show SME workloads growing across most sectors, with the strongest growth coming from private house building.

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: "We are at last seeing strong, consistent growth in workloads for SME house builders but the building industry is still a long way from being ‘home and dry’. The private housing market is recovering from a very low base after a recession which saw house building fall to record lows. Half of all SME house builders went to the wall or were forced to diversify into another area of construction.

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"In the late 1980s, two-thirds of all new homes were built by small local builders but by 2010, this had dropped to just one third. Current statistics reveal that SME house builders now deliver only a quarter of all new homes. Since the recession hit, a major factor in this has been the serious difficulties SME house builders experience in accessing bank finance, which show little sign of improving in the short term."

(CD/MH)