Editor's comment: Why Eddington must drive forward

For the general public, last week's Eddington Report had only one outcome - that they were going to have to pay to use the roads. That's about all the newspapers and opinion-formers talked about. But the impact of the report is far wider than that.

For the construction industry, there are some heartening messages. After the Department for Transport (DfT) quietly dumped its much-vaunted 10-year transport plan, many in the industry wondered exactly what was going to happen in terms of planning and strategy.

The Eddington Report has clearly identified that there it is a key area that needs to be addressed. It recommends that the DfT must develop a three-part framework: a long-term outlook over the next 20-30 years a 10-20-year strategy for delivering its objectives and a 5-10-year statement setting out its commitments and the timings of decisions.

Knowing what's going on is crucial to the survival and success of any business - and particularly for a low-margin sector such as construction. Forcing government and the DfT to produce a long-term strategy - and to highlight its commitments - should help improve business confidence in a notoriously difficult sector.

The vital part now, though, is for the DfT to actually deliver on the recommendations in the Eddington Report. There is so much in the report - and such a big job in convincing the public that road charging is the way ahead - that the recommendations that affect our industry could be overlooked - or just conveniently forgotten.

It's up to all of us to keep the pressure on government to make sure the framework happens - and that it sticks to it. Otherwise, we'll remain on the road to nowhere.

Emma Penny, Editor, Contract Journal [6 December 2006, p 44]