Construction's 24 wise men table recovery plan
16:39 29 Oct 2008
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The newly-formed Construction Council will put forward its plans to fast-track construction projects to the Treasury at a crunch meeting in December.
The new CBI superbody, consisting of 24 top bosses from all sectors of the construction, set out its strategic agenda at its inaugral meeting on Wednesday.
Carillion chief executive John McDonough, who is the chairman of the CBI Construction Council, said the group would put forward plans to help Chancellor Alistair Darling spend his way into recovery.
He said: “Current planned spending is huge. We will be happy if the Government can actually spend what is in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
“The key is to accelerate Building Schools for the Future, LIFT and Transport for London projects as well as some of the urban regneration schemes that are ready to go.”
The Construction Council has become the CBI third super sector group and sits alongside the influential financial services and manufacturing councils. It was formed to give a single voice to the full breadth of construction business interests from main and specialist contractors to house builders, materials companies and plant hirers.
John Cridland, Deputy Director-General of the CBI, said: “We are meeting the Treasury in December. The big issue is public procurement skills and procedures. We need to see procurement managed correctedly if we are to deliver a step change.
“We don’t want to be distracted by big blue sky ideas.”
The new Council also plans to offer a few more seats to smaller firms to balance the interests of the industry in both size of firms represented and the regional spread.
At future quarterly meetings, the Council plans to look at ways to promote Public Private Partnerships, sustainability, push for improvements to frameworks and supply chain relationships. It will also push for better bank liquidity and consider ways to improve industry training and skills in the downturn.