Construction industry bodies urge greater support for North-East workers (From The Northern Echo)

British Chambers of Commerce and Confederation of British Industry make appeal to Chancellor George Osborne

6:00am Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Business News By Steven Hugill

CONSTRUCTION industry bodies have placed increasing pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to support North-East workers.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Confederation of British Industry (CBI) are calling on Mr Osborne to use his Budget to stimulate the UK housing market by building thousands of properties to create new jobs.

The warning comes after construction bosses from the North-East Civil Engineering Contractors Association, the North-East Association of Consultancy and Institution of Civil Engineers sent an open letter to Mr Osborne in The Northern Echo, saying improvements to road networks, handing power to smaller projects and cutting red tape could create up to 3,000 jobs.

Those calls have been backed by the BCC and CBI, who says they want to see 100,000 new affordable homes built across the UK in the next three years, which would cost about £30bn and create at least 75,000 jobs.

The CBI said £2.2bn should be moved from current spending to hugh-growth areas, with some of the money used to build 50,000 affordable homes.

John Longworth, BCC director general, said the Government should stick to its plan of cutting borrowing, but still look to borrow if there is no growth after six months.

He said: “If within the next six months there is no prospect of growth you might have to consider actually borrowing more money but you should only do it to fund areas that the market would forgive.”