Minister pulls out of two industry meetings

Exclusive by Tim Wood



New construction minister Brian Wilson was forced to pull out of two construction appointments, scheduled for today (Wednesday).

Wilson was due to meet with representatives from the Construction Industry Training Board, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and more than 20 university vice-chancellors this morning to discuss threatened construction and engineering course closures.

Later, he was due to meet five industry umbrella bodies, including the Construction Confederation (CC) and the Constructors Liaison Group, for the first time.

However, an announcement by the Ministry of Defence last week that more than 1,000 workers were to lose their jobs at shipyards in Clyde meant that Wilson was needed elsewhere.

A DTI spokeswoman confirmed: "Wilson had little choice. He is genuinely sorry, but we were able to get someone else to cover his short address to the vice chancellors.

"Wilson was extremely keen to reschedule the meeting with the umbrella bodies, but was unable to do that."

She added that it would have been the same situation had Wilson been meeting with another industry and something major happened in construction.

Only last week (CJ 11 July) CC chairman Manus Adamson admitted: "My only concern is that Wilson is a very busy man, and the problem is going to be slotting into his timetable."

But CIC Graham Watts defended the minister saying he had done everything possible to re-arrange the later meeting.

"Wilson suggested to us that we brought forward the meeting by two days [to Monday 16 July] but some umbrella body representatives just couldn't make it," he said.

"We have agreed to meet again after the summer recess."

Michael Ankers, Construction Products Association chief executive, revealed that Wilson had already committed himself to two meetings with the CPA later this year.

"The situation was extremely unfortunate, but understandable," he said. "We remain convinced that although we will probably have a smaller amount of Wilson's time because of his commitments to other industries, he will still have major influence and construction will be well served in the future."