House building in Powys has almost ground to a halt in the last year, with many businesses facing an uncertain future, it has been revealed.

Oswestry-based house builder J Ross Developments, which has a history of building in Powys, said it has not built anything for the last year because of the economic climate.

It comes after new figures revealed work began on just 677 new homes across Wales between October and December – 76 per cent down on the same period in 2007 when building work began on 2,827 new homes, and 48 per cent down on the previous quarter.

Private builders were responsible for 618 new starts, with social landlords starting the other 59.

Local councils, including Powys County Council, did not start any house building.

The quarter saw work finished on 1,691 homes – 598 fewer than the previous year.

James Ellis, of J Ross, said: “We haven’t built any new houses in Powys for about 12 months and some of the ones we had already built are still sat there empty. Unfortunately it is a sign of the times, but we’re hopeful things will start to pick up and improve sooner rather than later.

“We have definitely had to change the way we work and things are a lot more tighter than they were.”

Paul Stephen, a builder from Caersws, near Newtown, said he’d also seen a drop in the number of homes being built.

He said: “I’m lucky because I don’t just deal with new house builds so things haven’t been too bad for me. But I’ve heard a lot of businesses are suffering.”

Richard Jenkins, of the Federation of Master Builders, called for a cut in VAT on building repairs and maintenance to boost the industry.

An Assembly Government spokeswoman said: “Clearly fewer affordable homes will be delivered through the private sector while the current conditions exist.”

She said the Assembly Government was providing £42 million though a capital investment fund over three years and bringing forward £12 million from next year’s social housing grant to pay for new homes.