Britain is still standing on the sidelines, but the majority of Britons seem to oppose monetary union. Is this because our roots are in jingoistic “Little Englander” attitudes, or because we see sound economic reasons for wanting to rule out membership indefinitely? I have watched the tug of war with interest for some time now. And although I am unable to align myself with Gordon Brown, neither can I side with Michael Portillo. What I do see is arrogant ambivalence within construction towards a collective Europe. This kind of attitude does our country no favours. We should not hark back to how things used to be. Instead, we need to gear up for the future.
Imagine, for a moment, that the UK is divided into two camps. On one side are the Eurosceptics with their island mentality. They want to pull up the invisible drawbridge. Highly vocal in their protests against the Channel Tunnel, they certainly do not want the high-speed rail link. Still basking in the glory of the Second World War victory, they believe that Britain is great. They praise British exports, the memory of Britain as second-biggest car exporter in the world (which it was, in 1955) still fresh in their minds.
Now picture yourself in the opposing camp. You think the British attitude is reactive and holding us back as a nation. You love the idea of a common currency and feel closer to your brothers in mainland Europe than to your British counterparts. You hate the terrible food and the miserable weather and despair that 4 million Brits buy The Sun every day.
As I said, I am unable to align myself with either view, but what I do know is that construction doesn’t stand a cat-in-hell’s chance in Europe if Britain continues to ignore the wealth of business opportunities a united Europe presents. It seems incredible that about 90% of Britons cannot speak a foreign language – especially front-line managers.
Another problem facing the industry is its excessive love affair with imperial measurement. How often have you been on a construction site and heard measurements referred to in feet and inches? The building trade has handicapped itself by being partly metric and partly imperial.
We cannot deny that we have an insular attitude to doing business. Why don’t we put an international phone code on our business cards to make it easier for prospective clients to contact us? Why do we shut our office doors for two weeks at Christmas and miss out on new business? These are just a few things that stunt our growth, but the list is endless.
We need to be in the game to have a sporting chance of getting ahead. We should have a commonality of interest rates so that we are not at a disadvantage – as we are now. Goods in Europe are much cheaper because of the high value of the pound.
Construction doesn’t stand a cat in hell’s chance in Europe if Britain continues to ignore the wealth of business opportunities on offer
The Co-op recently slashed the cost of champagne by a third by buying it in bulk from within the EU rather than from UK suppliers.
By “waiting to see”, Britain is going to be burdened with unnecessary foreign exchange costs while our European competitors trade effortlessly with one another.
And although the euro is still unknown territory for us, there are already significant benefits to joining. One of these is the harmonisation of interest rates, creating a level playing field for the whole industry.
If all EU members signed up for the euro, it would become the second-strongest currency in the world, able to withstand any fluctuation in US interest rates. This would have a knock-on effect on interest rates, lowering them for Europe and facilitating venture capital.
We would also be able to invoice direct from one country to another without converting, and, from a construction point of view, if a project lasts three years and rates change, this would not affect the margin.
Everything seems to point in favour of the euro. Britain should take the plunge because, whether we like it or not, we are going to join – it is just a matter of time. The industry needs to look beyond the white cliffs of Dover to the bigger picture. If you don’t like some of the European attitudes and laws, get in there and start fighting your case to change them.
It’s too late to turn the clock back to a time when Britain operated as Great Britain plc.
Postscript
Richard Clare is chairman of capital project and facilities consultancy EC Harris, which has offices throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
