Construction 'crisis' action call

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/8203977.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray has called on the Scottish Government to take urgent action to address "the crisis in the construction industry".

He cited a survey indicating the value of public investment had dropped nearly £2bn since the SNP came to power.

Finance Secretary John Swinney described the claims as "bogus and misleading nonsense" as the figures only included PFI/PPP contracts.

He said construction jobs in Scotland rose by 1.4% in the year to March 2009.

In 2007, the value of public investment projects in the pipeline was £1.3bn.

However, according to a new analysis of figures published by the Scottish Government's Infrastructure Investment Unit, this fell to £303m in 2008, and was expected to be £508m in 2009.

On Thursday, the Scottish Building Federation revealed that over the past year more than 900 construction trainees and apprentices will have been made redundant.

The reality is that the Scottish Government's capital budget is £3.5bn a year John SwinneyFinance Secretary

And figures from the Scottish Building Apprenticeship and Training Council suggested that the number of new construction apprentices starting work since the beginning of 2009 was down more than 60% since the same period in 2008.

Mr Gray said: "The slump in the construction industry is deeper than it would otherwise have been, and more jobs have been lost, because the SNP have turned off the tap of public sector investment.

"At a time when the Scottish Government should be doing all it can to protect jobs we are seeing a massive fall in public investment projects.

"We are talking about 20,000 jobs that have been unnecessarily lost and 900 apprentices facing an uncertain future.

"We need urgent action to address the crisis in the construction industry and get Scotland back to work."

'Tough times'

However, Mr Swinney said: "Their figures only include PFI/PPP contracts.

"All conventional projects, such as the M74 completion - which alone has a capital value £445m, and signed in February 2008 - are not included in their table.

"Nor would the £120m new Low Moss Prison that we are building in the public sector rather than the privatised prison that Labour and the Lib Dems were proposing, or the £842m new Southern General Hospital, or the £2bn Forth Replacement Crossing.

"The reality is that the Scottish Government's capital budget is £3.5bn a year - including new schools, hospital and transport projects, supporting vital jobs in the construction industry - and the Construction Skills Network have pointed out that the government's record infrastructure programme is helping the construction sector during tough times."

The minister also highlighted the scheme already in place which offers employers in the industry up to £2,000 to recruit a redundant apprentice.