When it comes to planning ahead to have a skilled workforce in place for major infrastructure projects, the construction sector is stuck between the rock of uncertainty and the hard place of taking a risk.

But anger is mounting after decades of indecision by successive governments when it comes to the business of spending big to translate ambitions into reality.

Take Heathrow. The debates over whether or not to go ahead with a third runway have been raging for several decades.

And the idea of Crossrail was first mooted in the Victorian era.

Another example of a big project being bedevilled by delays in decision making is HS2, which was proposed a decade ago.

Building firms struggling to make decent margins do not have the luxury of being able to invest in a skilled workforce without knowing whether it will actually be needed. This has prompted a call to arms by Balfour Beatty, Britain’s biggest contractor.

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