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PRO INSTALLER SEPTEMBER 2015
PRO BUSINESS
@proinstaller1
Construction sector
needs better public
communications
Ross Sturley, of CIMCIG, argues that construction has sidelined itself with poor communications.
In July, the Government
decided to do away
with the post of Chief
Construction Adviser.
The industry response
has been unanimous.
It’s a step back for UK
Construction Plc and
it’s a slap in the face.
Construction generates
around £100 billion of GVA
for the UK economy, around
7%. True, other sectors
contribute more. But many
high profile sectors contribute less. Energy and Water
throws in £33bn, the Creative Industries £26bn, and
Farming around £10bn.
There is a Minister for
Farming, and a department
for Culture Media and Sport.
There is a Minister for
Energy, and a Parliamentary
Under Secretary for Water.
Is there a Minister for Construction?
The apparent lack of concern for construction could
be argued in a number of
ways.
It could be that the sector
is so significant that it is just
too important to be given
to one junior minister; that
its output is so crucial to
transport, local government,
housing and planning, education, health, high streets
and industry that ministers
with those portfolios should
have the opportunity to help
create policy. Or it could
be that it’s just not glam
enough, and portfolios for
Universities, Life Sciences,
Welfare Reform, the Northern Powerhouse, Immigration, and Europe are judged
to be better vote winners.
Does our industry have a
public and political perception somewhat behind its
contribution to the future
of the United Kingdom?
Where would London’s future lie if Crossrail weren’t
built to time and budget,
or (if we ever decide to do
it) Heathrow’s new runway
opens a few years late.
How will the Northern
Powerhouse grow without
people to build the offices
and industrial units to
house the new jobs? How
will we build even the lowest trumpeted projection
of new housing without
a competent, skilled, and
growing bunch of housebuilders?
However, it is our own
fault that it has come to
this.
UK Construction Plc
continues to fail to communicate its benefits to the
general public. If the man
and woman on the street
felt that our brave British
builders, out in all weathers, deep underground
or high in the air, in dirty
and potentially dangerous
conditions, were making
a vital contribution to the
nation’s economic future,
there would be a Minister.
Instead, they believe that
builders are bodgers and
cowboys, or seeking to destroy treasured open spaces with ugly new buildings
whose inhabitants clog up
the local roads and doctors’
surgeries.
Scientists are forever on
TV explaining how their
latest discovery could help
cure Alzheimers, or Cancer,
and they have a Minister,
an Under Secretary, and a
Chief Scientific Advisor to
help them keep doing that.
They