West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE) runs a monthly Question & Answer Feature with the Birmingham Post newspaper, where a panel of industry specialists give their opinions on the current topical issues in construction. This month the experts were Nick Edwards, Prof Martin Chambers and Jerry Blackett.The topic was -
New Government - new challenges. What are the priorities for the new coalition government to help construction in the West Midlands?
NICK EDWARDS, Editor, Construction News
Meeting a huge underlying demand for housing should be a priority for the West Midlands - a social one and a business one. But it doesn't look like it will be.
Conservative governments typically fuel a boom in housebuilding but this is not a typical Conservative government. It looks likely that building new (and refurbishing) social housing - done by councils and housing associations - will grind to pretty much a halt after massive investment over the last 10 years.
Similarly, private housebuilding has been growing during the year, after very little activity during the recession, but that has started to falter.
The government has already told councils they don't have to set targets for housing developments and said they want to defend the green belt - so there are plenty of signals that councils won't have to either build their own houses or give planning permission for private developers.
As a more general point the coliation government needs to recognise that construction activity is a great boost to the economy as a whole. Research shows that £1 spent on construction creates £2.84 for the economy - one of the best returns of any industry. 
Prof. MARTIN CHAMBERS, Programme Executive, Bovis Lend Lease
As well as the private sector being supported to flourish, the key to the future success of UK PLC is going to come down to how government decides to invest in ‘infrastructure’, both intellectual and physical. For the first time in more years than I can remember issues like high speed rail (HST2) and energy generation appear to have become ‘a political’. What I want to see now is matters like education, housing, and defence being addressed in the same mature way.
Of course it is only natural to want to roll out your own ideas, but what we need now is a government that is equally prepared to recognise that its predecessor might have actually got some things moving in the right direction. Certainly, spend time on making what we currently have, work better. Reward those that rise to the challenge, but please don’t penalise the rest of the country just because it had to hitch its wagon to the only show that was previously in town.
Major public procurement programmes have the ability to contribute massively towards providing this country with an educational and physical infrastructure that will be fit for the 21st and 22nd century. After all we have just about used up all the slack in the infrastructure that our Victorian forefathers created. Major programmes do however take a long time, and cost the nation an inordinate amount of money to get in to place. So please let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water this time around. 
JERRY BLACKETT, Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
The overriding priority for our construction members is clarity over the public sector cuts to infrastructure, security, education and health budgets. Rumours abound regarding the prospects for Building Schools for the Future, the biggest-ever school buildings investment programme, as well as ProCure 21+ Framework, the procurement method for NHS Capital Schemes. The reliance of construction firms upon the public sector is significant and businesses need clarity so they can plan for the next ten years. Construction firms also want the Government to resolve the fate of Advantage West Midlands, the regional development agency, which is a key player in the development of key infrastructure projects in the region.
The sector also needs the Government to make good on its commitment to open up public sector procurement to small and medium-sized businesses. Initiatives like Find it in Sandwell are steps in the right direction- and will need to be replicated across the board. We also want to see the Government taking the green agenda further with incentives to homeowners and businesses that want to conserve energy and heat. We’d welcome equalised VAT rates between new builds and retrofits. We also need to ensure that employment legislation works for the sector and its subcontractors and does not deter job creation at this fragile time.
The next Q & A Feature, will be published in the Business Property Supplement of the Birmingham Post newspaper on the 15th July 2010.
