How we can construct a new future for one of Scotland's key industrie

SCOTLAND’S construction industry is one of the biggest drivers of our economy contributing more than tourism and whisky combined and employing more than 250,000. But the harsh reality is that it receives little strategic support from the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Building Federation aims to change this with the launch of a new policy agenda, "Blueprint 2008: Building Scotland’s Future", to solve the issues holding back the industry from achieving its full potential.

When the federation met the finance secretary, John Swinney, yesterday, it put forward a plan which we believe will help insulate Scotland from the current global economic turmoil.

At the top of our agenda is the creation of a Scottish minister for construction to provide a single point of contact and a champion for the industry within government.

The minister should lead a new strategy to coordinate the government’s target of building 35,000 new homes each year while improving standards, addressing skills, reducing planning delays and leading efforts towards zero carbon construction.

A new ministerled construction industry partnership group should replace the plethora of existing talking shops and drive the industry forward by setting new standards and opening up more opportunities to smaller building firms.

This would create a level playing field for all publiclyfunded projects including the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the new Forth road bridge.

The Scottish Building Federation is proposing new financial incentives to encourage employers to take on many more apprentices to address the skills gap. The industry recruits 4,000 apprentices every year, more than 45 per cent of the total number of construction trainees in the UK.

But places are limited and Scotland cannot afford to rely on attracting skills from other areas. Only by reducing costs to employers in the early years can we meet our targets.

Action is required to remove negative attitudes towards vocational careers and reduce the dropout rate among apprentices. Schools and colleges should be supported to introduce work skill programmes in the early years of secondary schools to make young people ready for employment.

Teachers should encourage pupils, particularly girls and the academically gifted, towards the construction industry while a new leadership programme, which connects young people to successful entrepreneurs, should be piloted.

There is an opportunity to use the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as a catalyst to develop Scotland’s skills. We should follow the example of the London 2012 Olympics to showcase construction through the creation of a skills academy and to deliver workers needed for the games.

The federation is proposing a new partnership with the government to meet the greatest single challenge to the construction industry – the environment. Its aim must manage change and develop solutions to the challenges.

Government targets for zerocarbon homes and new greener building regulations will set demanding new standards. Scotland is wellplaced to be at the forefront of the drive towards greener construction and the industry is proud to lead the way in energy standards but consumers are rightly demanding more.

Expertise within the industry, combined with university and research institutes, provides an opportunity for Scotland to be a world leader in sustainable construction. We are proposing the creation of a Scottish research fund to pioneer zerocarbon construction and a new programme to improve our skills in green building techniques.

Then there are more domestic concerns which tarnish the image of the building trade and damage consumer confidence such as rogue traders and VAT evasion.

Householders should be provided with a checklist when employing tradesmen and have access to a database of reputable companies. The Scottish Government can help to stamp out the bad apples by taking up the case for a reduction in VAT on repairs, maintenance and improvement works with the UK government.

Lastly, the federation is calling for action to speed up planning and end connection delays caused by gas and electricity suppliers.

The 2006 Planning Act is a step in the right direction but help is needed to recruit and retain more local planners. The Scottish Government should lead an effort to work with universities and colleges to boost the numbers coming into this profession.

Closer cooperation and consistency between planning authorities when interpreting guidance and building standards is also required. Too often, Scotland’s 32 local authorities work in 32 different ways.

Then there are the utility delays. Every day, construction sites across Scotland come to a halt waiting for essential services from utility companies. Incompetence, lack of accountability and a poor attitude to customer service by gas and electricity suppliers costs the Scottish economy millions of pounds a year and is one of the biggest barriers to improved productivity.

Swinney has put surpassing the UK’s growth rate as a top priority for the Scottish Government and with business tax cuts on the agenda he is making many of the right choices.

The construction industry has already shown that it can bring a longterm dividend to Scotland, ahead of the contribution provided by the chemical industry, shipbuilding and aerospace put together.

With his support for our 2008 policy agenda, the construction industry can provide the blueprint and literally lay the foundations for greater success and improved performance.

Michael Levack is chief executive of the Scottish Building Federation.