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ACE has urged the Scottish Government to take decisive action to stave
off a potential meltdown in the Scottish construction sector this
summer.
Following reports this week highlighting the apparent
reluctance of the Scottish Government to accelerate progress on the
Scottish Futures Trust, which aims to provide an alternative to current
arrangements for the funding of public infrastructure projects, ACE
Scotland chairman Jim Tod echoed the views of the Scottish Building
Federation in emphasising a number of major projects which are due to
end over the next six months.
“There is no desire for
scaremongering within the Scottish construction sector, but to carry on
with our heads in the sand will be costly indeed and something has to
be done to avoid a total standstill, which at this stage is looking
inevitable,” said Tod.
He went on: “The cold and stark facts are
that construction work with a total capital value of £352m on schools
and hospitals and other projects with an additional capital value of
£782m will all be finished by the beginning of November. That’s well
over £1bn of public infrastructure projects across Scotland that will
reach completion over the next half year. When those projects dry up
there will be a large hole to fill and we need to find a solution now
if we are to avoid a meltdown in the construction sector,” Tod claimed.
The
lack of progress of the flagship funding mechanism north of the border
has been increasingly evident for some time. The Scottish Futures Trust
initially raised hopes that a capital expenditure programme could be
successful in delivering infrastructure and projects in Scotland, but
with optimism fast turning into malaise the feeling now is that the
Scottish Government must act sharply to avert serious long-term
consequences for the construction industry.
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