The boss of a West Midlands engineering firm has urged the Government to speed up its infrastructure plans in a bid to kickstart the construction industry.
Julie White, managing director of the D-Drill Group, said the much of the planned investment was scheduled for many years ahead, but the industry needed a boost immediately.
She said: “While I very much welcome the commitment to infrastructure spending, I would like to see a policy of getting more of the projects moving straight away as much of the investment is planned for the future.”
However, she welcomed the growing attention being given to housing, infrastructure and apprenticeships in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Ms White, who runs the specialist diamond drilling, concrete sawing and controlled demolition company, said: “I’ve said before, we would like to see shovel-ready projects getting underway where the recovery in construction is not happening as quickly as possible.
“I was very pleased to the Chancellor making a commitment to house-building but this is a problem that will not be solved by funding alone.
“It seems everyone recognises that we need thousands more new homes but that is very often at odds with localism and it means local planning issues make it difficult to get developments underway.
“Construction needs new blood and if these changes help to achieve that, then that would be extremely good news for the industry.”
