Is Britain Going to Build Its Way out of the Recession?
by Jonathan Gilpin Delivering the procurement news you're looking toBoris Johnson famously coined three phrases at the start of
the pandemic – “we’ve built out of the recession before, we’ll do it again”, “we’ll
build, build, build out of the biggest crisis for 75 years with extra spending
for schools, hospitals, and infrastructure”, and “build back better.”
In 2020, amongst other commitments to construction and
infrastructure projects, the Prime Minister pledged a new
10-year school year school rebuilding programme with £1bn committed to the first
phase of the project – the repair and redevelopment of 50 schools and FE
colleges in the worst condition across
England.
That got us thinking, will the UK be able to build its way
out of the pandemic, or has the impact of the past 24 months created too
mammoth a task for construction to exist as the economy’s saviour once again?
Why construct?
Firstly, it’s worth understanding why the government chooses
to spend money. Ultimately, it boils down to the stimulation of the economy,
protection of jobs, avoidance of unemployment and promotion of spending.
The level of intervention and spending is largely determined
by how bad things get – and despite some positive signs of recovery, there is
still present fragility and plenty to suggest the road ahead will be rather
turbulent.
Why we spend on construction
Research into expenditure
has revealed that approximately every £1 spent on construction translates into
£2.92 of value to the UK economy.
When we consider that the construction sector employs 2.7
million people and was, in fact, the only sector in the UK where pre-COVID
there were more jobs in existence than at any time since 2007,
you can see why there’s so much emphasis on the development of this area of the
economy.
One project leading the way within construction that should
bring music to the ears of those interested in economic recovery is HS2.
Project Speed Plan was initiated by the Prime Minister as he
began the process of boosting the economy and last week UK firms were urged to
bid for contracts worth up to £500m in total with HS2 Minister Andrew
Stephenson commenting: “HS2 has never just been about boosting transport – it’s
about driving business, creating long lasting jobs, and building back better.”
Andy Swift, HS2 Project Client for Euston, added:
“We encourage businesses big and small to bid for these packages and we are
proud of the role that HS2 is playing in helping boost the UK economy after
COVID.”
HS2, Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, has also been
earmarked as “offering young people who are out of work the opportunity to
kickstart their career on Europe’s biggest infrastructure project” in the Bucks
and Herts area.
Building out of the recession is by no means a new concept –
the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was an infrastructure
project commissioned during the Great Depression but even this was just a
tiny piece of the overarching plan developed by the US Government to reboot the
economy – the New Deal. 3,470 fire
towers were erected, 97,000 miles of road built, 3 billion trees planted, 711
state parks created, and, perhaps, most importantly, more than 3 million people
were employed.
It should come as no surprise if, in the next few years, we
see more and more construction and infrastructure projects being announced
throughout each of the UK nations, commissioned by central government and
devolved administrations.
Using first-hand Supply2Gov data, we can see that over the
course of the past three months, there has been 17,045 contract notices
published that mention the phrase ‘construction’.
If your business is looking to find out more about recently
published construction
tender opportunities, contact Supply2Gov today and begin your journey on
the route to success.
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Created on Apr 4th 2022 07:43. Viewed 326 times.