More must be done to remove red tape, says Council.
The Construction Industry Council says that the budget has done nothing to encourage it that there is any real desire in government to reform the regulatory burden on the industry.
The CIC said that although it welcomed the underlying message from Gordon Brown's 10th budget - that economic stability was likely to last for the next six to seven years - its main concern was the amount of red tape that still dogged the industry.
Describing Brown's plans for the new generation PFI schemes, the CIC said it was a "huge step in the right direction", and called for a standard form of PFI cost report, which it believes would support bring design to the forefront of PFI best practice.
"Despite our concerns over the increasing size of the public sector, we do welcome the increased emphasis on investment in schools, skills and education. The emphasis the teaching of science in schools, which is vital to the recruitment of people into the construction and engineering professions - and the extension of free education to enable a "second chance" for young adults will also help pull back some of the people we have missed in the last decade," the CIC said in a statement.
