Civils groups announce wishlist for Scottish elections

Ringfencing local transport funds, more consultation with the industry on strategic transport decisions and longer regulatory periods in the water sector form a major plank with civils firms for the pending Scottish elections.

Listing its key issues in a joint document, Scotland’s Vital Infrastructure, the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association, the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Association for Consultancy and Engineering set out their stall for the elections next month.

For the water sector the organisations state that the current four-year regulatory period is “too short and rigid”, leading to huge imbalance in workflows.

On strategic transport the document states that although the current capital programme is “huge and exciting”, it must stay on programme for the industry to plan ahead and that there should be a close consultation with the industry.

The groups also call for local transport funds to be ringfenced and that on the issue of competency and safety they call on public sector support for the Construction Skills Certification Scheme.