Founding News Editor Shah M Azizul Haque AADHIKAR Media Foundation established with the publication of AADHIKAR the weekly on Monday 19 December 1980 from London E1 UK.
CONSTRUCTION firms in the North East are sceptical of news of a recovery in the sector despite figures showing the biggest quarterly rise in output for nearly half a century.
The Office of National Statistics has released figures showing the total volume of construction output rose 8.6%, above the estimate of 6.6%.
This marked the largest rise since 1963, but the ONS and companies in the sector pointed out that this compared with a first quarter hit by wintry weather and warned against a similar spike in the third quarter.
Richard Brown, managing director of Newcastle’s Dorin Construction, said: “The first quarter was frozen and nothing happened so it’s easy to demonstrate growth in comparison. I think we’re past the worst of it, but the market is still flat as a pancake.”
Figures from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply’s activity index recorded a tenth straight month of growth at 57.3 in July, but the reading was down on the 15-year high of April and May. Newcastle property giant Grainger said last week that it expected the general market for the year to be “relatively flat”.
Brown added that while the industry was suffering as a whole, the North East was particularly reliant on public projects.
He said: “There is no private money, and there won’t be until the banks start lending. It’s a case of riding it out and taking a long-term view.”
CITB-ConstructionSkills North East regional strategy adviser Terry Hanlon warned the annual Construction Skills Network report projected 0.6% growth each year for the North East, behind the national level of 1.7%. He backed the government’s re-allocation of £150m to fund 50,000 apprenticeship places for SMEs, a rise from 20,000.
He said: “Currently around 23% of the region’s skilled workforce travels outside of the area for work, creating a skills drain in the North East.
“We must support our home-grown companies, through training and up-skilling, cultivating a sustainable workforce and offering support to new talent coming in to the industry. Only by keeping those opportunities local to our region can we ensure that we help a generation of young people who are not employed or in education and training to find work on their doorstep.”
John Dickson, executive chairman of Northumberland building firm Owen Pugh, said the firm had a reasonably-full order book, but added price levels were low because of competition.
He said: “The industry has seen some recovery, but if we’ve made maybe 4% back, that’s still about 21% lower than it was before the catastrophic slide.
“The North East construction sector was hit harder than almost anywhere else in the country and when you look further south there’s a lot of Highways Agency money being spent as well as work on the Olympics and Crossrail and that has no effect up here whatsoever. When you go to meetings in London the atmosphere in the industry is very different.
“A lot of apprentices have been laid off mid-course. There’s not much room for younger people to get in.”
The UK CONDEM Collusion for poverty creation in England and Wales is exposed once again this morning in the shape of the CONDEM-backing Guardian lamenting the fact that Nick Clegg their ‘nominee’ [pre 6 May 2010 UK "General Election"] continues to fail to take over the reins of power! The Guardian is positively sick of the dim state of affairs. The Guardian undermined the electoral chances of many small groups by ‘endorsing’ the Clegg-led Lib Dems party. Now the ‘organ’ is unable to substantiate its ill-advised ‘endorsement’. Yet the Guardian continues to fail to apologise for the wrong role it had played. As it continues to fail to tell the truth about Big Biz agenda scam Crossrail. Had the Guardian been run as a teller of the truth about UK politics at ‘home and abroad’ then it would have never been serving as a tout for Big Biz forces. Then the Guardian would have heeded the advice WE HAVE issued for almost 7 years now. The Guardian should have heeded it and told the truth about the UK economy
Nick Clegg’s hopes of running the country dashed by prime minister Despite David Cameron being on holiday, the deputy prime minister has not been left holding the reins of power * Robert Booth and Allegra Stratton * The Guardian, Monday 16 August 2010 Coalition first 100 days Downing Street insists David Cameron is still in charge, but ‘Nick will be around and picking up some events’. It is the most power a liberal politician has had since the 1920s, although Nick Clegg’s hopes of becoming only the second liberal politician in almost a century to run the country have been rather set back by David Cameron’s insistence that he will remain in charge from his Cornish holiday bolthole. As deputy prime minister, the Liberal Democrat leader might have expected to follow his predecessors, John Prescott and Harriet Harman, in taking the reins of power today, albeit for just a fortnight in the dog days of August. But his senior coalition partner is not quite ready to let him follow in the footsteps of David Lloyd George just yet. From this morning Clegg might be the most senior working politician in the country but there will be no moving into No 10 and he will stay in his suite of offices at 70 Whitehall instead. “The PM remains in charge but while he’s on holiday Nick will be around and picking up some events,” a Downing Street spokesman said. Nevertheless, the next fortnight represents the most power a Liberal has had in Britain since Lloyd George stood down in 1922. Clegg will kick off with a “virtual” town hall event at the headquarters of the instant messaging company MSN and address rallies in Sheffield, Newcastle and Bristol as he tries to regain support which has slumped since his party decided to share power with the Conservatives. He is likely to announce the appointment, already leaked, of Alan Milburn, the Labour politician, to be a “social mobility tsar”. It is a far cry from Lloyd George’s agenda which involved winning the first world war, establishing a new international order at the Paris peace conference of 1919 and founding the welfare state. Clegg’s brief record of taking the reins from Cameron is far from faultless, as far as Downing Street is concerned. When Cameron was in the US on prime ministerial business last month, he used prime minister’s questions to call for Jack Straw to account for “the illegal invasion of Iraq” causing Downing Street to issue a statement that “the coalition government has not expressed a view on the legality or otherwise of the Iraq conflict”. No poll pact with Tories, says Hughes Speculation had been mounting that the Lib Dems’ fortunes in the opinion polls would necessitate some kind of electoral pact with their Tory coalition partners to ensure that they are not wiped out in the next election. Today the Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes ruled this out. He said: “Our party is committed constitutionally to standing in every seat. There will be no deals, there will be no pacts.” He said the coalition agreement had a life expectancy lasting the five years of the parliament, and after that battle would resume. Opinion polls show support for Lib Dems has dropped to 12%, down from 23% at the election. But Hughes hopes the Lib Dems can come through the next five years as a stronger party. “This is a five-year contract to do business with the Tory party because the electorate gave no party a majority,” he said. “We should have no preference at the next election between the Tories and Labour and other parties. We are going to stand on our own.” Nonetheless, Lib Dem anxiety about the polls is real. So real that the possible appointment of former leader Sir Menzies Campbell to the post of high commissioner to Australia is thought to have been held up, for fear of what could happen if a byelection is triggered in what is now a Lib Dem seat. • This article was amended on 16 August 2010. The original referred to Menzies Campbell in connection with the post of governor general in Australia. This has been corrected. Allegra Stratton * Print thisPrintable version * Send to a friend * Share * Clip * Contact us * larger | smaller Politics * Nick Clegg · * David Cameron · * Liberal-Conservative coalition · * Liberal Democrats · * Conservatives UK news More news * More on this story * Nick Clegg in an online Q&A on 16 August 2010. Hesitant display from cautious Clegg as he begins two weeks ‘holding the fort’ Michael White: The Lib Dem leader has not had the practice or the exposure that David Cameron has experienced – and it showed in today’s Q&A with MSN * Nick Clegg’s first day – minute-by-minute * Clegg confirms promise to end mixed-sex hospital wards * Clegg calls response to Pakistan floods ‘lamentable’ * Clegg to announce Milburn appointment as social mobility tsar * Alan Milburn joins Demos as it changes direction ”