Between anger and despair, the Building sounds the alarm one last time before possible actions

While we are still awaiting the announcement from a Minister of Housing, the President of the FFB expressed the fed up of construction professionals by echoing the recent demonstrations of farmers: “We have no tractors, but we have cranes that weigh 26 tonnes.”

Indeed, the sector is going through a serious crisis which does not seem to be getting any better. After several calls from construction professionals to the Government to propose solutions and request concrete actions, Olivier Saleron fears the worst. “In the construction sector, the alliance of 10 means 300.000 jobs which from mid-2025 will go to France Travail. “It’s cataclysmic for the French economy,” he warns.

A dark future for the building

While some hoped to revive or at least help the sector a little to get out of this crisis, Olivier Saleron sets the tone: “It's already ruined”.

According to him, “We can no longer house our French, but if only that were the case. Energy renovation is not going to make up for all that. That's fucked up too. We wanted to become more complex from year to year, a decree came down at the end of December which provides a renovation guide. Which is very good. Except that there are not enough in the territory, there are only a third. We are putting things in place and nothing is ready.”

For the President of the FFB, the only way to avoid the worst requires “simplifying with great force because our craftsmen will go out of business before June 30”.

Faced with ministerial instability, tension rises

At the end of his nerves faced with the lack of a dedicated contact, Olivier Saleron admits: “I am without a filter, without a Minister of Housing. I have known 5 in 3,5 years. Shelf life: 10 months. How do you expect us to do something serious today? The Minister of Housing today, that does not interest me” before adding that now he is speaking “directly to the Minister of the Economy, to the Minister of Ecological Transition because it is the supervision of Housing”.

Faced with this catastrophic situation and the lack of listening to professionals, Olivier Saleron warns the Government: “When the cranes leave the construction sites because there will be no more construction sites, instead of going to the workshops perhaps they will land, in the spring, on the ring roads or on a few roundabouts or on a few highways. I won’t be able to hold on to my base.”

He concluded by recalling the need to act quickly for his sector. “The construction industry never goes out into the streets. If they go out into the street, in 2024, there are the Olympics, there is Notre-Dame to finish. If we want everything to go well and be delivered on time, we will have to listen to us.”