Not good London and West-wise. Folk are scared to spend (those who have money-and there is some money out there). Every time a negative or bad statistic is rolled out by the media or our utterly impotent government, everyone runs for cover. Repair work is put off, and the public now expect something for nothing, not helped at all by the 'pay for a referral' websites, the worst of which is an open auction (for all trades). Having said that, come next year, I think things will begin to move-slowly. The final nail in the coffin, is that potential customers who may be prepared to have more major work done, are being stuffed by a lack of credit. Most of this countries 'middle' wealth has been achieved by a lot of people ducking and diving and generally coming good over time. If the proposed knee-jerk clampdowns on finance, credit and mortgages comes in, I reckon we will turn the clock back 30 years, with only the gold plated, able to get funding for anything, the rest of the population being left to slide back down into a day by pay check existence. I think in all sectors many business and companies will not recover...but on the other hand, others will. Your U.S.P. will become ever more important (see another of my posts). We are still hanging on in albeit leaner and quieter.