THE SLOWDOWN in the national housing market does not appear to have had an effect on the removal industry in Dundee, according to one local firm.

As the housebuilding and removal industries swing the axe over large chunks of their workforces, Dundee-based Tayside Removals is bucking the trend by investing in new vehicles.

“There has been no effect on our business—we are as busy as ever,” manager Billy Robinson said yesterday.

However, Dysart-based BP Removals said it was noticing a difference.

The firm began cutting prices in March when the volume of calls and requests for quotes began to drop.

Owner Brian Burns said, “We are around 30% down on last year when we were usually guaranteed at least two or three good jobs every week.

“I put leaflets around months ago, but we are still waiting for a response.

“The situation is affecting everybody—we have even had customers cancelling jobs because the people buying their house have been refused credit and the deal has fallen through,” he added.

A slump in house prices and mortgage approvals has seen a rapid slowdown in the British housing market in recent months, resulting in the housebuilding industry and many of its service industries having to cut overheads to survive.

Since the beginning of July over 5000 job losses in housebuilding have been announced and there have been fears that removal companies would be cutting jobs in a similar fashion.

Britain’s largest removal firm Pickfords narrowly avoided cutting over 1000 jobs earlier in the year, after the business was sold to an American investor.

However, smaller firms have not been so lucky and hundreds of jobs have been lost across this sector in accordance with the 26% drop in house trading since last May.

And yet Mr Robinson told The Courier yesterday that the removal industry in Dundee appears steady for the time being and he even has plans to invest more into his business during this unpredictable time.

He said, “We haven’t seen any drop in our income at all in recent months.

“Business has been as normal as ever. I’m even looking to purchase new vans.”

Montrose-based Ken Urquhart Removals hasn’t noticed any fall in house moves yet but the firm is bracing itself for a decline within the next few months as housing jitters spread north.

“We’re bracing ourselves for an impact in the next three or four months, when the housing market slow- down reaches us,” said the company’s Alexander Skea.

“But we also do storage, so when people are moving we’re busy moving and when there is a slow-down then there are more ‘snatch backs’ or repossessions and we’re busy moving things then as well.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword—when the market is busy, we’re busy and when it’s slow, we’re busy,” he added.