Building spoke to six construction industry figures to understand their considerations for the upcoming administration and the priorities it must focus on.
What are the key concerns for Caroline Gumble, Alan Jones, Peter Caplehorn, Mark Robinson, Yolande Barnes and Stephanie Canham?
It is imperative that the BuildingRegulations review is completed and that the new building safety regime, which has been talked about since Dame Judith Hackitts report over 12 months ago now be brought into force and made a reality.
The industry wants to get on with it. We are doing what we can but, from a government perspective, they need to stop faffing around with their own personal agendas and show leadership on this.
One of the other things I would really like to see is some stability with a minister. We have had three different construction ministers over the past 18 months and that is not giving our sector stability.
They need to stop faffing around with their own personal agendas and show leadership on this
The government also needs to deliver on its infrastructure and construction promises, particularly around housing, because that creates huge opportunity for the industry.
We also need to be wary that we have got the right skills base in the industry and, post-Brexit, there could well be some issues in terms of how we resource the industry moregenerally.
The government must act quickly andwith vigour to ensure all of our buildings are safe.
The tragedy at Grenfell tower and the spate of fires since have shown that some buildings, materials, regulations and procurement methods once assumed safe simply arent.
Englands fire safety regulations lag shamefully behind other countries
Aside from the combustible cladding ban on new-build housing over 18m, we have yet to see a thorough overhaul of building safety regulations and, of the 435 buildings identified with cladding systems similar to Grenfells, only 114 have had this successfully removed and replaced.
Englands fire safety regulations lag shamefully behind other countries including Wales, Scotland, the US and the United Arab Emirates and this must be urgently addressed.
The new government must provide the industry with strong baseline prescriptive regulations on the use of combustible materials, means of warning and escape and sprinkler systems.
We must take action now peoples lives are at risk.
The new government must recognise thevalue of the built environment and construction industry to our society and economy. If we are to build the high-quality, low-carbon homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure this country needs, construction must be given an appropriate level of consideration and investment, particularly in the digital transformation of our industry currently under way.
Clarity and robust leadership on regulatory changes resulting from Brexit will be essential
Recent economic forecasts from the Construction Products Association (CPA) identify infrastructure delivery as crucial to the fortunes of the industry over the next few years. While new infrastructure project announcements are encouraging, many CPA members are concerned about whether projects, once announced, will in fact be delivered. The new government must provide greater certainty to encourage the necessary long-term investment.
There is also a strong concern that the Brexit process could derail progress and reform already made with regards to building standards and quality. With our industry undergoing a critical review of regulations post-Grenfell, clarity and robust leadership on regulatory changes resulting from Brexit will be essential.
Similarly, procuring for value rather than lowest cost should be a priority if we are to reduce risk in our built environment. As the largest client of construction services, government should lead the way on this.
As the UK housing crisis deepens, ensuring the countrys ageing infrastructure is fit for purpose before building new homes is essential to maximise connectivity between communities. Too often, minds are drawn to big-ticket infrastructure projects such as HS2 and airport expansion. But it is the roads, hospitals, doctors surgeries and schools thatare the lifeblood of a functioning and efficient society.
Priority needs tobe ensuring that we are making sound andconsidered investments in projects
To date, there has been a lack of cross-party consensus on infrastructure funding, which makes meeting challenges across the entire country and ensuring value for money more difficult. Turnover of ministers is regular and many are not in their posts long enough to make a mark or better understand the complexities of the issues at hand.
I urge the next government to improve thespeed of decision-making, in order to make itmore streamlined and ensure we aredelivering essential infrastructure now. This can be achieved by driving home thedevolution agenda and by providing localauthorities with greater fiscal freedom, enabling them to make improvements quickly.
Whatever the outcome of the election, the new government will undoubtedly invest billions of pounds in infrastructure over the next few years. But the No1 priority needs tobe ensuring that we are making sound andconsidered investments in projects that support the creation of new communities and connect existing ones.
The No1 priority for the new government has to be sustainability. But any new measures will have to affect all three pillars ofit simultaneously: social, environmental and economic. Tackling one without the others will be, at best, ineffectual and, atworst, counter-productive. A new government will be faced with mounting social pressures around housing affordability and inter-generational inequities.
Ordinary owner-occupiers will be among those who suffer value loss or high capital expenditure demands
Economically, the pressures will include a dire shortage of skilled construction workers in the wake of Brexit. Environmentally, the pressing need is to start retrofitting existing building stock. If we do not, carbon emissions will continue to rise and so will utility bills and fuel poverty. In the medium term, we willbecome increasingly aware of unsustainability in certain types of buildings and car-reliant environments. Some use classes will become obsolete, buildings too expensive to own, some assets literally stranded by rising tides and rivers. Ordinary owner-occupiers (as well as investors and commerce) will be among those who suffer value loss or high capital expenditure demands. The woes of impecunious leaseholders in high-rise buildings will be added to growing safety fears as well as concerns over environmental performance.
The long-term prospect is that society divides further around real estate sustainability. The experience of stakeholders in productive, efficient properties and in neighbourhoods with thriving communities will differ substantially from those with obsolete, expensive-to-own and difficult-to-run buildings in struggling local economies and socially stranded communities.
The incoming government needs to do something that will help to kick-start the countrys property market, which has been flattened by the uncertainty of Brexit.
Getting rid of stamp duty for a period of between three and five years across almost allproperty values, with possibly a reduced amount at the very top end, but certainly for properties under 1.5m, is something that would help to unlock the residential market. By definition, this would bring in its wake more infrastructure investment and development for the UK.
Getting rid of stamp duty for a period of between three and five years is something that would help to unlock the residential market
The government also needs to look at reforming the existing planning regime, which dogs our developments and ability to bring a greater amount of housing for those that need it within a reasonable time and without so much cost investment for developers, be they private or public sector. Improvements in this area could lead to less costly housing.
Read more:
Election 2019: What does construction want from the new government? - Building
- Freedom Caucus: The Fight Club of Congress - The Christian Science Monitor - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- History shows a better strategy than shutdown for reducing the deficit - MinnPost - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Haake: For the freedom caucus, chaos is the point - Chicago Tribune - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Appeals court sets hearing date on Missouri abortion rights initiative ... - Missouri Independent - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Things to Know About the Billionaire Card - a Diamond-Encrusted ... - CEOWORLD magazine - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Report on Countries that are Candidates for Millennium Challenge ... - Millennium Challenge Corporation - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- The Freedom Caucus' shutdown threat recalls tactics of past House ... - NPR - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- Opinion | Joe Biden op-ed: 60 years after March on Washington, we ... - The Washington Post - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- Universal Basic Income: Fiscal fantasy or AI necessity? - talkbusiness.net - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- Hurtling toward a fiscal cliff - POLITICO - POLITICO - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- Governor Glenn Youngkin - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam - Proclamation - August 28th, 2023 [August 28th, 2023]
- New Zealand - The Heritage Foundation - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- Singapore Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI ... - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- Mexico Economy: Facts, Population, GDP, Corruption, Business, Trade ... - December 12th, 2022 [December 12th, 2022]
- Economic liberalism - Wikipedia - November 7th, 2022 [November 7th, 2022]
- Don't ask, don't tell - Wikipedia - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- In first debate, Healey and Diehl clash over the economy, abortion and Trump - WBUR News - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Election 2022: What to know about California propositions - Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Vice President Kamala Harris calls on Texans to protect reproductive and voting rights during Austin visit - 25 News KXXV and KRHD - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- How Republicans in the Rio Grande Valley are using faith to draw in Latino voters - CBS News - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Letter to the editor: Pierce will work for values that matter to Senate District 25 - Press Herald - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Letter to the editor: Left needs heads examined - Washington Times - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Book Banning, Curriculum Restrictions, and the Politicization of U.S. Schools - Center For American Progress - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Judge considers halting enforcement of Indiana's near-total abortion ban - The Times of Northwest Indiana - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Texas Youth Summit draws conservative to plot the culture war - The Texas Tribune - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- The Weight of Trump - The Atlantic - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Tanzania and Zambia want to upgrade the 'Uhuru Railway' but can they? - The Conversation Indonesia - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Power games: Plans to shift to a centralised market in power sector must take into account concerns of all stakeholders - The Indian Express - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Inside the Academic-Freedom Crisis That Roiled Florida's Flagship - The Chronicle of Higher Education - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Liz Trusss energy price cap handout will put her talent for U-turns to the test - The Guardian - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- FM stresses joint Arab action to overcome regional crises - Jordan Times - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- The contract of Nigerian citizenship and diaspora voting - Guardian Nigeria - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Study ranks Midland as top economic freedom area in Michigan - The Center Square - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Another Shocking Decline in Life Expectancy | The Fiscal Times - The Fiscal Times - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Liz Truss Has Been Elected As The New Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom. Replace Boris Johnson - Nation World News - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Why the Left Is Learning to Love the Military - The Atlantic - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Millions of dollars spent secretly at B.C. Legislature - theBreaker - theBreaker - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- Economy forecast to grow by 7-7.5% in current fiscal Times of India - English Bharat Times - September 6th, 2022 [September 6th, 2022]
- The Union Government Is Arbitrarily Squeezing States Fiscal Freedom To Borrow - The Wire - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- House Freedom Caucus calls on McCarthy, McConnell to reject 'lame duck' spending this fall - Fox News - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- JAGs 7th and most ambitious season yet is titled 'The Freedom Practice' - Vermont Biz - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Why is the Michigan Medicine nurses' union abridging freedom of speech? - WSWS - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Board of Elections certifies recall effort to oust East Cleveland's mayor - News 5 Cleveland WEWS - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Bangabandhu's thoughts on economic freedom are still relevant - The Financial Express - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Overview: A Year of Taliban Rule in Afghanistan - Voice of America - VOA News - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Rochester enters the era of the $250,000 police officer - Rochester City Newspaper - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- India aims to be developed nation in 25 years: Modi - Gulf Times - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- EDITORIAL: Welcome to new thinker on the block - Coeur d'Alene Press - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- Letters to the editor for Sunday, August 14, 2022 - News-Press - August 15th, 2022 [August 15th, 2022]
- The Serious Lack of Good Governance and Economic Freedom: Root Causes of Sri Lanka's Ongoing Turmoil - Heritage.org - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- The FOIA backlog continued to grow last year - Federal News Network - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- More money rolling into state's casinos, less tax being collected The Daily Gazette - The Daily Gazette - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- EDITORIAL: Fentanyl, death by the dose - Washington Times - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Liz Truss's tax cuts are not inflationary - The Telegraph - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- The UN wants to educate children it will succeed only if it feeds them first - The Guardian - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Sunburn The morning read of what's hot in Florida politics 7.27.22 - Florida Politics - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- A first look at the medium-term fiscal program - BusinessWorld Online - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Financial Giants Reject West Virginia's Claims That They're Boycotting Fossil Fuels - The Epoch Times - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Five Waldo County towns ready to vote on broadband - Republican Journal - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Indian Navy expected to spend 70 pc of capital budget in domestic procurement this fiscal: Rajnath Singh - ThePrint - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- NGO letter opposing T.42 amendments in appropriations - Government Accountability Project - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Digital services provided by foreign firms to be taxed from tomorrow - The Kathmandu Post - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Ayushman health ID card: A need for fine tuning! - Times of India - July 19th, 2022 [July 19th, 2022]
- Windfall tax on crude goes against incentive of more pricing freedom - The Financial Express - July 9th, 2022 [July 9th, 2022]
- Diversity, equity and inclusion update: June 2022 issue | CU Boulder Today - CU Boulder Today - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Menendez, Schiff alarmed that Biden again approves US military aid to Azerbaijan - Armenian Weekly - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Egypt is cozying up to Russia. It's time for the US to step in. - Atlantic Council - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- PM to say to G7 leaders: We must keep up our resolve on Ukraine - GOV.UK - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- Where have all the Christians gone? | News, Sports, Jobs - Williamsport Sun-Gazette - Williamsport Sun-Gazette - June 29th, 2022 [June 29th, 2022]
- President Biden waives Section 907 restrictions on US aid to Azerbaijan - Armenian Weekly - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Senate retirement bill benefits wealthy Americans - The Hill - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Ambassador Kierscht Interview with The Key - US Embassy in Mauritania - USEmbassy.gov - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Roe v. Wade overturned: How will it affect abortion access in Indiana - The Herald-Times - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Constricted devolution of fiscal power - The Kathmandu Post - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Public office and accountability issues in Nigeria - Daily Trust - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Shaheen, Portman Participate in Discussion Hosted by Dartmouth on Russia's Unprovoked Invasion of Ukraine | US Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire... - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Congress Ignores Pressing National Business While It Obsesses on Jan. 6 - The Epoch Times - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Ukraine Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI ... - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- How would India fare on a modified misery index? Better than US & UK, worse than most others - ThePrint - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- "Don't Want RBI To Become Extension Of Government": Ex CEA Arvind Subramanian - NDTV Profit - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]