Britain’s obsession with property continues unabated as Barclays figures show a mini-boom in the number of people starting up their own businesses in the construction sector...

The latest quarterly start-up figures from Barclays show that 17,500 people embarked on new business venture in the construction sector in the first quarter of 2007, the highest quarterly volume since Barclays started tracking individual business sectors in 2003.

London, the South-east and Wales led the way with construction starts up by more than ten per cent over the past year (see tables).

The high level of construction related starts is even more marked as all other business sectors saw the number of start ups fall. Overall start ups were 12 per cent lower in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the same period of 2006, with construction start-ups increasing by six per cent in the same period.

John Davis, marketing director for local business at Barclays said: “The British public has always been big DIYers with a record £10.7 billion spent last year, but now many of these same people are taking that interest and turning it into a business, whether they are plasterers or property developers.

“There doesn’t seem to be any let up in our national property obsession and with getting up the property ladder continuing to be our number one collective goal in life, it doesn’t seem likely that there will be a shortage of construction entrepreneurs in the future.”