TUC report to kick-start recovery

Shadow Construction Minister Nick Raynsford is launching a new TUC report entitled 'The Case for Construction' today (Thursday 20 April). The report calls for a major public investment programme to kick-start a construction recovery. It aims for 50,000 new construction jobs over the next three years.

The report has been prepared by the TUC southern and eastern regional council's construction committee headed by Bob Blackman of the TGWU. It says 81,000 jobs have been lost in the region since 1991. But the illegal economy is flourishing. And skill shortages are apparent because 'training has all but ceased.'

It is argued that a programme of housing and public transport investment can be funded by:

1. œ2 billion of local authority capital receipts;

2. œ1.35 billion saved by creating 50,000 construction jobs and the knock-on creation of another 100,000 jobs; and

3. œ3 billion being saved annually by phasing out mortgage interest relief.