That rally cry from the Prime Minister earlier this week was met with a mixture of optimism and realism from the team here at GRM (and probably most of the construction industry too!). We asked our MD, Dr Bill Peacock, for his thoughts on the latest announcement from the government:
“Build Build Build… what a great idea, but don’t you think the Construction Industry has been trying to do that already!
“The 3-word repeat, like Tony Blair’s “Education, Education, Education” 1996 speech, is a great rallying cry but must be immediately followed by actions. After all, it is not Boris Johnson or his government that is going to Build Build Build is it? No, it is us, the construction industry.
“We have the actual tools, but the government needs to give us the metaphorical tools to do the job. It makes great headlines when huge sums of money are targeted at worthwhile construction, but it takes years to get to the build stage without cobbling something together that won’t last or is indeed dangerous.
“A more realistic rally cry would be “Design Construct Maintain” as without significant attention to all three stages we will just be repeating the mistakes of the past. But that would not have delivered the desired media headlines!
“We count ourselves as fortunate that GRM is in the vanguard of construction, assessing land and designing foundations for new developments across both the private and public sectors, including hospitals. But furlough completely stops in October in just three months from now, so we need to see the plan for Build Build Build before we lose construction staff to unemployment and ultimately the momentum that the Prime Minister is desperate to deliver.”