The construction industry’s Get Britain Building Campaign launched today at the House of Commons, but got little solid commitment from MPs that they would back its 10-point action plan to get the sector through the slump.
The initiative has been organised by the Builders Merchants Federation, British Precast, Federation of Master Builders and the Modern Masonry Alliance against the background that house starts in 2009 will be at their lowest since 1924.
Chairing the launch, Denise Chevin, editor of Building magazine, further highlighted how dire the industry’s position is.
“This is the worst recession it has seen since 1980 and it’s forecast that 300,000 construction jobs will be lost this year,” she said.
Out of the three MPs hosting the launch, Labour deputy chief whip John Spellar, Conservative shadow minister for small businesses Mark Prisk and Liberal Democrat shadow for small businesses and enterprise, Lorely Burt, only the latter made a solid pledge to one of the campaign action points, a cut in VAT on repair, maintenance and improvement work and materials to 5%.
Mr Spellar said that he welcomed the campaign as a means of underlining how important construction is to the economy, but said he was constrained from making commitments on specific fiscal measures in the pre-budget period. He said the government was taking action to “unblock” capital investment programmes, notably the Building Schools for the Future initiative, and was also intent on freeing up credit to business.
Mr Prisk also said he could not “sign up to all 10 points” of the campaign, but that the Tories were proposing policies that would help construction, notably the establishment of a £50bn loan guarantee scheme for business.
Among those in the audience at the launch was Timber Trade Federation chief executive John White. He urged the introduction of fiscal measures that “would make a difference now”, notably the 5% VAT rate in the RMI market and a freeing up of credit insurance.
Federation of Master Builders director-general Richard Diment said that Get Britain Building would now be rolled out at grass roots level, with the distribution of campaign material across the building and construction sector supply chains.
