The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), construction’s largest trade association, says that the 0.2% fall in GDP in the fourth quarter of 2011, announced yesterday, shows that the government must make construction a priority.
FMB director of external affairs Brian Berry said that the GDP results were “not surprising” given that the federation’s state of trade survey for the last three months of 2011 showed that workloads in the SME construction sector had declined in each of the 16 quarters to the end of December 2011.
“Confidence in the building industry has collapsed with only 5% of small building companies expecting workloads to increase in 2012,” Mr Berry said. "The GDP figures prove that construction is essential to the health of the UK economy. However the industry needs the government to adopt a bold approach to reducing the burdens upon it; pursuing the proposed planning reforms and a reduction in the overall burden of developer contributions, which are still making many sites unviable, are urgently needed. Proposed changes to part L of the building regulations must be delayed. The government must do more to ensure banks return to reasonable rates of lending to the construction sector.
"We realise that money is tight for the government but if it wants growth in the wider economy it needs to allow construction industry get building.”
Unite, Britain's biggest union, was even more critical of government. General secretary Len McCluskey said: “[Chancellor George]Osborne can’t blame the global economy, he just needs to look in the mirror to see who is responsible. The country faces the worst recession since the 1930s, but this government has done to nothing to support manufacturing or construction.
“Building 100,000 extra affordable homes would create up to 750,000 new jobs and generate extra demand in the economy. Instead this government is slashing the public sector.”
The Scottish Building Federation (SBF) is also calling for more help, prompted by the Construction Skills Network (CSN) report, which forecasts that the industry will shed 45,000 jobs this year. SBF chief executive Michael Levack said: “It is particularly concerning to see the industry’s core manual trades hit so hard by redundancies, with thousands of skilled individuals expected to lose their jobs over the next five years.
“It needn’t have to be that way. The Scottish government’s ambitious commitment to create 25,000 new apprenticeships each year over the lifetime of the current Scottish parliament should become more than a simple numbers game. Accompanying this commitment, there must be a targeted strategy to rebuild the skills and capacity the construction industry will undoubtedly need – including in the manual trades – to meet demand when the recovery finally comes.
“Beyond funding for apprenticeship places, the Scottish government needs to put additional funding into key sectors such as housebuilding and the warm homes fund. That will enable more employers to offer young people an apprenticeship in construction, helping to build the future skills and capacity we need for the long term.”
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