For graduates who want to work in construction, surveying and civil engineering, the industry’s responses to the Budget's infrastructure announcements make interesting reading.
The infrastructure and construction initiatives announced by the chancellor have received a mixed response from professional bodies, trade unions and other commentators. Here is just a sample of views:
Nick Prior, head of infrastructure at accountants Deloitte, was quoted in The Telegraph as saying: ‘There is nothing new in this Budget about what the Government wants to do with infrastructure. In fact, its ambitions seemed to have been watered down. The long term aspiration and intention of the Government is clear but the concern is that the shovel is nowhere closer to the ground.’
Construction union Ucatt’s general secretary Steve Murphy’s quotes in The Construction Index were even more critical: ‘This budget was bad news for construction. The government is the construction industry’s biggest client. The industry is crying out for significant government investment in new projects in order to help get construction workers back to work. All that the industry received today were a few additional crumbs.’
And, while the Construction Products Association welcomed the government’s business-friendly policies, they were disappointed with other measures in the Budget, according to The Construction Index: ‘We welcome the direction of travel set by this budget, and the various announcements to support housing, rail investment, and development. But construction is facing a very difficult 12 to 18 months and these will not do much to change this.’ They added: ‘It was particularly disappointing that…the Budget seems to have been developed in a vacuum as far as their claims to be the “greenest government ever” are concerned.’
In its initial response to the budget, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) seemed to be broadly supportive of the moves in the Budget, but wanted them to happen quickly: ‘Progress on projects in the National Infrastructure Plan, particularly the 40 'shovel ready' projects, needs to take place as quickly as possible to begin to attract the infrastructure and the homes needed to deliver growth across the country… RICS would have liked to have seen a reduction in VAT to 5% on all home, maintenance and repair work, and a reinstatement of empty property rate relief up to £18,000 as immediate measures to generate jobs and growth now.’
Similarly, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), while supportive of the government’s commitment to infrastructure, is concerned about the way some of the projects will be funded and wants greater clarity from the government regarding this. It also calls for more investment in greener energy.
So what did the Budget actually say about construction and infrastructure?
Some of the key announcements the Chancellor made concerning construction include:
- To take forward some of the recommendations of the Cook Report into strategy for roads. This could ultimately lead to a national roads strategy, with funding allocated over a five-year period, which would probably help construction firms to go after long-term work, something which in turn would help them predict their recruitment needs better.
- As announced in the Autumn statement, to make Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle ‘super-connected cities’.
- To ‘support’ Network Rail to invest another £130million in the Northern Hub rail scheme.
- To simplify the planning process and put the National Planning Policy Framework into action by the end of March.
- To use the Green Deal to support energy efficiency, and to provide £1 billion to ‘support the commercialisation of carbon capture and storage; take forward the renewables obligation banding review; and develop five new centres for offshore renewable engineering’.
Will the measures in the Budget make a difference to graduate recruitment?
The government would argue that the Budget is designed to promote growth and protect jobs. From the response of the construction commentators, however, it may just be too soon to tell with any certainty.
Source: Targetjobs.co.uk, Thursday 22nd March 2012
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