so ..... basically they're bust - - - continued

[V8Druid]

"basically they're bust" ......... or bloody well should be " with £99m paid out in interest on borrowings and similar expenses, the final result was a pre-tax loss of £63.3m, also more than double 2024’s result of a £30.9m loss. " HTF are they still trading FFS and who the hell would want to deal with them with that level of debt hanging over them like the sword of Damocles ?????

Losses mount as OCU builds revenue

Utilies contractor OCU Group saw revenue grow by 45% last year but pre-tax losses more than doubled.

www.theconstructionindex.co.uk

 

[Monkeybusiness]

"basically they're bust" ......... or bloody well should be " with £99m paid out in interest on borrowings and similar expenses, the final result was a pre-tax loss of £63.3m, also more than double 2024’s result of a £30.9m loss. " HTF are they still trading FFS and who the hell would want to deal with them with that level of debt hanging over them like the sword of Damocles ?????

Losses mount as OCU builds revenue

Utilies contractor OCU Group saw revenue grow by 45% last year but pre-tax losses more than doubled.

www.theconstructionindex.co.uk

I guess the new owners are ripping the cash out of the business to avoid paying any tax…

 

[Gunners]

First time maybe that the entire country is mentioned in this thread but I feel its kinda relevant sadly.
A quote from BBC website today
"The UK is set to be the second-fastest-growing of the world's most advanced economies this year, according to new projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But the IMF also predicts the UK will face the highest rate of inflation in the G7 both this year and next, driven by rising energy and utility bills.

Prices are forecast to rise by 3.4% this year and 2.5% in 2026, but the IMF says higher inflation is likely to be temporary, and should fall to 2% by the end of next year.

UK economic growth rates remain modest at 1.3% for this year and next, but that outperforms the other G7 economies apart from the US in 2025, in a torrid year of trade and geopolitical tensions."

Forgive me if I'm wrong but if growth is 1.3% but inflation is 3.4% are we not actually in recession?
I'm dreading the next budget....

 

[Furniss]

France are leading the way in all areas ....
Thriving economy and stable government

 

[doobin]

France are leading the way in all areas ....
Thriving economy and stable government

Same s**t but a far better quality of life….

 

[Lancs Lad]

Same s**t but a far better quality of life….

This ...
had this discussion a few times lately... About New Zealand and elsewhere .okay. They're not a million times better government-wise but at least you're not fighting for space with 60 to 70 odd or goodness knows how many idiots who want to kill you and do sod all.
Plus considerably better weather and darn sight more realistic land prices and the prospect of owning 10 acres and house with barn for less than the price of some pile of sh*t new build over here. Sorry to use a phrase but the country is f*cked

 

[Furniss]

Same s**t but a far better quality of life….

Honestly dont want to appear smug and I know rats quit a sinking ship and all that but ffs when I go back there

 

[6feetdown]

Sister in law of late wife was over from Ireland yesterday not been for 8 months couldn't believe how expensive it has gone

 

[Furniss]

I think we got lucky where we chose to live,you dont spend your life looking at what your swanky neighbors drive, its not a particularly affluent area, used to think it held us back and it maybe did, but poss in a good way, i have a french friend who lives at the coast with wealthy mates with expensive houses,menages and horses, multiple businesses,swimming pools and lots of big white pebbles alongside their drives,he used to say i needed to go down there to make some real dosh..... nah.

 

[bobthebuilder]

France are leading the way in all areas ....
Thriving economy and stable government

 

[V8Druid]

not looking good .... or put another way ..... looking ****ing serious out there

Construction firms in critical distress surge 70% year-on-year

Begbies Traynor warn many SMEs 'close to the wire' as Autumn Budget looms

www.building.co.uk

" The firm’s ‘Red Flag Alert’, which measures companies’ financial strength, shows there were 7,361 construction companies in critical distress at the end of the third quarter, up 70.2% on the same period last year. .......The number of construction firms deemed to be in ‘significant’ distress – the second most serious category – rose 14.6% over the same period. ......... the number of businesses in ‘critical’ distress continues to soar ......"

Sharp rise in ‘critical’ distress for construction firms

There has been a 70% leap in the number of construction companies in ‘critical’ financial distress, an insolvency firm is warning.

www.theconstructionindex.co.uk

Forecasts downgraded on back of poor summer

After a slow summer and pre-budget jitters, expectations for construction output have been revised substantially down.

www.theconstructionindex.co.uk

 

[doobin]

I think we got lucky where we chose to live,you dont spend your life looking at what your swanky neighbors drive, its not a particularly affluent area, used to think it held us back and it maybe did, but poss in a good way, i have a french friend who lives at the coast with wealthy mates with expensive houses,menages and horses, multiple businesses,swimming pools and lots of big white pebbles alongside their drives,he used to say i needed to go down there to make some real dosh..... nah.

I'm looking to buy somewhere in a similar area (Mayenne), for the same reasons. To get away from all the Range Rover twats where I live. Who knows, maybe end up over there permanently.

Both my neighbours have Range Rovers- one is an NHS receptionist and the other a podiatrist ffs.

 

[V8Druid]

I'm looking to buy somewhere in a similar area (Mayenne), for the same reasons. To get away from all the Range Rover twats where I live. Who knows, maybe end up over there permanently.

Both my neighbours have Range Rovers- one is an NHS receptionist and the other a podiatrist ffs.

but don't those " Range Rover twats " provide you with a steady (and good) income??

 

[Gecko]

but don't those " Range Rover twats " provide you with a steady (and good) income??

Doesn't mean you want to live near them

 

[V8Druid]

Doesn't mean you want to live near them

the commute'd kill it for @doobin though

 

[doobin]

but don't those " Range Rover twats " provide you with a steady (and good) income??

Having seen the lifestyle just a basic job affords you in France, you wonder why we bother over here.

We looked at another house the other day, f**k all of an upgrade, just a bigger garden and not on the main road. Downstairs slightly larger, upstairs terrible and in need of a lot of work. No views to speak of either, unlike where we are. The view you see across the wheat field is taken from the back of the garages... which block the view entirely from the two windows on the house that face that way! One tiny cottage next to massive big house, the big house has all the land that used to be the front garden for both properties to make their driveway and to add insult to injury the big house owns two of the garages also with associated right of way! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163958954#/?channel=RES_BUY

That would have been another £270k on the mortgage with the stamp duty. No way in hell is that worth the stress.

I'm charging £500/day upwards here and a nice but small house in the country is £1m plus. In Mayenne, a bloke and a digger or a cherry picker is 300-350 euros a day and a nice house in the country is maybe 80 thousand euros with a bit of land. Everyone is chilled, the streets are clean, the towns are family friendly and wholesome. I saw two traffic lights the whole time I was there! Here, I'm in a little bubble of a nice area with associated rich twats but drive three miles to Chichester and you can't move for traffic and new builds and f****ng immigrants. It's all about population density. West Sussex, 1160 people per square mile. Mayenne 53 district, 160 people per square mile. Massively more competition for eveything in the crowded South of England leads to a miserable existance for most yet they don't realise it. Idiots thinking they are living the life with their shitty new builds and purple fences, crowded cheek by jowel with their thick neighbours in a sea of red brick walls and cookie cutter houses with German motors on PCP.

My profit last year was into six figures and without all the machinery i've bought over the last few years being available for capital allowances i'd have handed over what, 40k of it in tax? Yet a council house in a village that a f****ng postman bought from Maggie in the eighties is now worth £625k? That means you need a joint income of £178k to buy it at a 3.5% mortgage multiplier. £178k combined income! That's for a little ex council cottage in a small estate in a village with a reasonably nice view across fields. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/168088985#/?channel=RES_BUY

. f**k it. I'm not buying any more kit, i'm not working hard any more. I'm going to take all the cash I can and buy gold with it. And a house in France.

 

[Smiffy]

Having seen the lifestyle just a basic job affords you in France, you wonder why we bother over here.

We looked at another house the other day, f**k all of an upgrade, just a bigger garden and not on the main road. Downstairs slightly larger, upstairs terrible and in need of a lot of work. No views to speak of either, unlike where we are. The view you see across the wheat field is taken from the back of the garages... which block the view entirely from the two windows on the house that face that way! One tiny cottage next to massive big house, the big house has all the land that used to be the front garden for both properties to make their driveway and to add insult to injury the big house owns two of the garages also with associated right of way! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163958954#/?channel=RES_BUY

That would have been another £270k on the mortgage with the stamp duty. No way in hell is that worth the stress.

I'm charging £500/day upwards here and a nice but small house in the country is £1m plus. In Mayenne, a bloke and a digger or a cherry picker is 300-350 euros a day and a nice house in the country is maybe 80 thousand euros with a bit of land. Everyone is chilled, the streets are clean, the towns are family friendly and wholesome. I saw two traffic lights the whole time I was there! Here, I'm in a little bubble of a nice area with associated rich twats but drive three miles to Chichester and you can't move for traffic and new builds and f****ng immigrants. It's all about population density. West Sussex, 1160 people per square mile. Mayenne 53 district, 160 people per square mile. Massively more competition for eveything in the crowded South of England leads to a miserable existance for most yet they don't realise it. Idiots thinking they are living the life with their shitty new builds and purple fences, crowded cheek by jowel with their thick neighbours in a sea of red brick walls and cookie cutter houses with German motors on PCP.

My profit last year was into six figures and without all the machinery i've bought over the last few years being available for capital allowances i'd have handed over what, 40k of it in tax? Yet a council house in a village that a f****ng postman bought from Maggie in the eighties is now worth £625k? That means you need a joint income of £178k to buy it at a 3.5% mortgage multiplier. £178k combined income! That's for a little ex council cottage in a small estate in a village with a reasonably nice view across fields. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/168088985#/?channel=RES_BUY

. f**k it. I'm not buying any more kit, i'm not working hard any more. I'm going to take all the cash I can and buy gold with it. And a house in France.

You forget one thing doobin. As do many on here and country people in general. And that is that the shitty little new build is all they want.
They don't want a big garden it just extra maintenance. The garden needs to be big enough for the obligatory once yearly bbq.
They don't need a garage to work in. It merely has to be big enough to store their kids bikes and the Christmas decorations. As long as they have somewhere to hang their 100 inch tele and can get deliveroo Costa they are fine.
And tbh we should be grateful, could you imagine how much worse would be if they did all want the big garden with the workshop and the sprawling views.

 

[doobin]

You forget one thing doobin. As do many on here and country people in general. And that is that the shitty little new build is all they want.
They don't want a big garden it just extra maintenance. The garden needs to be big enough for the obligatory once yearly bbq.
They don't need a garage to work in. It merely has to be big enough to store their kids bikes and the Christmas decorations. As long as they have somewhere to hang their 100 inch tele and can get deliveroo Costa they are fine.
And tbh we should be grateful, could you imagine how much worse would be if they did all want the big garden with the workshop and the sprawling views.

Yup, I’ve always said to the missus that I’m glad her work colleagues like new builds as it meant that we could get a character cottage with views for the same money!

 

[6feetdown]

Having seen the lifestyle just a basic job affords you in France, you wonder why we bother over here.

We looked at another house the other day, f**k all of an upgrade, just a bigger garden and not on the main road. Downstairs slightly larger, upstairs terrible and in need of a lot of work. No views to speak of either, unlike where we are. The view you see across the wheat field is taken from the back of the garages... which block the view entirely from the two windows on the house that face that way! One tiny cottage next to massive big house, the big house has all the land that used to be the front garden for both properties to make their driveway and to add insult to injury the big house owns two of the garages also with associated right of way! https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163958954#/?channel=RES_BUY

That would have been another £270k on the mortgage with the stamp duty. No way in hell is that worth the stress.

I'm charging £500/day upwards here and a nice but small house in the country is £1m plus. In Mayenne, a bloke and a digger or a cherry picker is 300-350 euros a day and a nice house in the country is maybe 80 thousand euros with a bit of land. Everyone is chilled, the streets are clean, the towns are family friendly and wholesome. I saw two traffic lights the whole time I was there! Here, I'm in a little bubble of a nice area with associated rich twats but drive three miles to Chichester and you can't move for traffic and new builds and f****ng immigrants. It's all about population density. West Sussex, 1160 people per square mile. Mayenne 53 district, 160 people per square mile. Massively more competition for eveything in the crowded South of England leads to a miserable existance for most yet they don't realise it. Idiots thinking they are living the life with their shitty new builds and purple fences, crowded cheek by jowel with their thick neighbours in a sea of red brick walls and cookie cutter houses with German motors on PCP.

My profit last year was into six figures and without all the machinery i've bought over the last few years being available for capital allowances i'd have handed over what, 40k of it in tax? Yet a council house in a village that a f****ng postman bought from Maggie in the eighties is now worth £625k? That means you need a joint income of £178k to buy it at a 3.5% mortgage multiplier. £178k combined income! That's for a little ex council cottage in a small estate in a village with a reasonably nice view across fields. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/168088985#/?channel=RES_BUY

. f**k it. I'm not buying any more kit, i'm not working hard any more. I'm going to take all the cash I can and buy gold with it. And a house in France.

I'm off to the Philippines for a look next year

 

[V8Druid]

have said before I'd been working towards a French address, 'fore me Gaucher's diagnosis in 2010 -
had sold my w/shop site (at contract/deposit stage) in '07/8 when the sh1t hit the fan and me buyers went tits up -
so was no choice but plod on, or we'd have been there by '08/9
had been and looked at a few and damned near pulled the trigger on one which was lovely and a fifth of the cost here
too bloody old now (with complications), but if you'm young, keen and willing BLOODY WEEL GO FOR IT