VALUE FOR MONEY

The good news for the Building Employers Confederation is that in 1994 it achieved its strongest financial performance for more than five years, with an operating surplus of œ460,000. That's good news for the industry too. Strong and healthy representative bodies are crucial to the well-being of construction as a whole.

The BEC is nonetheless still under pressure. Membership has dropped to an all-time low. Income has plummeted. And the surplus has been achieved only by draconian cuts in spending (down 40% over the last five years).

Small wonder that Paul Shepherd, the new chairman of the BEC council, is at pains to emphasise that any fresh demands on the confederation for funding will be very closely examined in terms of added value. And the demands are there right enough. Not least is the proposition that an annual œ400,000 should go into beefing up the Construction Industry Employers Council under the new and somewhat grandiose title of 'The British Construction Alliance'. That adds up to a œ40,000 contribution from the BEC, or nearly a tenth of its latest surplus.

In the past, Shepherd has expressed doubts about CIEC's role and its ability to speak for the industry as a whole. Smaller firms are equally concerned about the cost and the perceived threat of CIEC being dominated by the major contractors. Materials suppliers are wondering whether their political future lies with CIEC. The professions and specialists are quite happy with their own separate lobbying arrangements.

In short, the 'super CIEC' concept is beginning to wear a little thin.

And Paul Shepherd is surely right in implying that the industry has spent far too long contemplating its navel. It is time for the BEC, and others, to spend a lot less time worrying about industry structures and a lot more on the direct business of serving and representing the interests of the paying membership.