Mace chief executive Mark Reynolds has accused the government of being “more interested in small boats than houses for people”.
Reynolds, who co-chairs the government-sponsored Construction Leadership Council along with Business Minister Nusrat Ghani, said “the government has lost its love for construction.”
In an interview with Construction news ahead of the publication of Mace’s annual results, he added: “When you look at the number of homes we need and then you compare it to the scale of immigration that absorbs all of their time… it’s a joke. It’s appalling. The government’s approach to housing is shameful.
“Construction is a connector industry. It is necessary for the transition to the green economy […] and there is an urgent need to solve building security. But the government is more interested in small boats than houses for people.”
According to an estimate by Heriot-Watt University, commissioned by the National Housing Federation (NHF) and housing charity Crisis, the UK needs around 340,000 new homes each year, including 145,000 affordable homes. 191,000 new homes were built in the UK last year.
Last week, a freedom of information request also revealed that the Department for Housing, Housing and Communities had returned £1.9bn of unspent capital to the Treasury, including £245m for the repair of unsafe buildings and £255 million for affordable housing.
CN understands that the comments made by Reynolds relate mainly to the government’s lack of action on construction issues and the housing crisis, rather than the issue of immigrants arriving in the UK by boat.
However, Reynolds and the CLC have previously called for measures to help increase immigration to the UK to ease construction labor shortages.
Earlier this year, the Migration Advisory Committee made it easier for businesses to sponsor foreign workers to come to the UK to carry out a range of construction jobs, following a recommendation made by the CLC.
Elsewhere in the interview, Reynolds said the government’s decision to stop Phase 2a of HS2, including the construction of a new Euston station by Mace Dragados, was not “ideal”, while that Mace’s chief of staff, Hannah Vickers, said in March that the Budget “is at risk of tilting”. construction in recession”.
Reynolds also revealed that the CLC was progressing work on zero retentions by having retention clauses removed from NEC contracts and pushing for retention clauses to be removed from JCT contracts.
“The CLC is making efforts to remove retentions from large contracts and from the entire industry. [Something like] Currently £4.45 billion is held in withholdings and that has to change, and it has to change fast.”
The government has been contacted for comment.
