How the regions are bearing up to the downturn: SCOTLAND, WALES and NI

Since the turn of the year many a project throughout the Celtic nations has been shelved. And many a job has been lost.

The regions were suffering from the effects of the credit crunch long before the expression was added to the Oxford English Dictionary lexicon early in July.

And, albeit at different speeds, trouble within the beleaguered housing market has been primarily weighing each of the provinces down.

Thousands of workers in Scotland's £6 billion housing industry, including 300 last month at Stewart Milne alone, have been laid off because of the slump.

It is estimated more than 100,000 people are employed by the country's residential new build sector, but trade body Homes for Scotland claims as many as 15,000 jobs have already been lost as a result of the downturn.

New housing starts in Scotland fell almost 50 per cent between the first and second quarters of 2008. The latest state-of-the-nation survey by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce has depicted a sharp fall in optimism within the sector, as contractors deal with not only the reluctance of financial institutions to lend but also climbing input prices.

Hope still remains, however, that the market will be boosted during the tough times by necessary works, like those linked with the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Unfortunately for Wales, which has been buoyed by strong residential growth in recent years, particularly in Cardiff, the squeeze on the private purse has proven a real blow to activity.

High-profile projects have hit the buffers as house builders face plummeting sales. Just one of many examples, a 17-storey apartment building under construction by house builder Bellway in Cardiff Bay was halted six storeys up after the firm struggled to find buyers.

Murmurs have also been made over the Welsh Assembly Government's exacting targets for all new buildings to be zero-carbon by 2011, which some say are further rubbing salt into the wound.

Even the generally robust Northern Ireland market, which has been driven forward by significant public sector works, has recently taken a slide.

It was only two years ago the then chancellor Gordon Brown announced £18 billion would be spent in the region on a host of public sector projects.

But the latest Government data has revealed its industry activity dropped off by about seven per cent – its total value falling from £563 million to £525 million – during the year to the end of March.

The construction purchasing managers' index, compiled by Ulster Bank, found new work orders were falling at a record rate.

It has been estimated that as many as 2,000 jobs have been lost in Northern Ireland's building sector over the past few months following a tumble in property prices. The Construction and Property Group – a new trade body formed by developers, contractors, surveyors and estate agents hit by the slowdown in the residential sector – has pleaded for the region's main lenders to help revitalise the housing market.

Meanwhile the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is putting pressure on the Northern Ireland Executive to fast-track important public sector projects.

The region does however boast a few sectors which show a hope of improvement. Some industry indicators have exposed slight improvements in school building levels, as well as hotel construction, and planning approvals in certain value brackets have also now begun to climb.