Industry group co-chair Mark Reynolds writes to Treasury ahead of spring budget
The Construction Leadership Council has called on ministers to provide more visibility of the public construction and infrastructure pipeline.
Mark Reynolds, co-chair of the CLC and chief executive of Mace, has written a letter to the Treasury calling for a series of measures to help construction deliver growth ahead of the 6 March budget.
Reynolds said: “Maintaining stability across the sector’s pipeline of projects is the single biggest factor to enable us to enhance productivity, invest in skills and innovation and ultimately deliver growth for the economy and the infrastructure and housing the UK needs.”
Among the CLC’s asks are a call on the government to commit to publishing the updated infrastructure and construction pipeline within 10 days of the autumn statement each year to provide more certainty for the industry around public work.
It is also calling on the Construction Playbook guidance – which sets out how public works projects are procured – to be implemented consistently. CLC is also calling for flexibility in infrastructure funding and fiscal rules to boost investment in infrastructure.
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On housing, CLC is calling for planning fee increases to be ringfenced for local planning authorities, for measures to unlock small sites for SME and to ensure there is enough funding for building and product safety.
The call comes as Building publishes it’s A Long-Term Plan for Construction report, which also makes recommendations to improve the built environment. The report calls for the return of a chief construction adviser in Whitehall to ensure the government becomes a better client.
The report was published as part of Building’s year-long Building the Future Commission project.
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