Labour’s third session will feature three significant topics for construction – and three chances for the party to impress its employers. The first, and most pressing, is for deputy prime minister John Prescott to convince the electorate that he is able to improve the UK’s transport system. Opinion polls and focus groups are all showing increased impatience with the government on this issue.
Of course, the mess of gridlocked roads and late trains – thrown into shocking focus by the rail tragedy at Paddington – cannot honestly be blamed on Labour, although some Tories have done this. Rather, it reflects the long-term social trend towards mass car ownership, as well as many years of poor investment and weak management in the public transport sector. No politician really knows how to tackle this situation in a thoroughgoing way, and transport experts that do have a clear vision, usually put forward proposals that are electoral suicide.
Blair’s backroom boys have been discouraging Prescott from overtly attacking the private motorist through road pricing – and he did his own political credibility no good at Labour’s conference with the hypocritical farce of a 300 m chauffeured ride from hotel to conference centre.
Of course, Prescott cannot simply order Railtrack to make meaningful investments in the network, and, even if he did, it would take years to see any noticeable improvement – and even longer for new services to be provided. Politicians do not think in terms of years. The good news, however, is that I expect to see the road programme increased in 2000-2001, ostensibly as a millennium project in the interests of employment and industry, but actually to appease fed-up motorists all over the country.
The second topic for this session will be to achieve real momentum for construction minister Nick Raynsford’s anti-cowboy initiative. The chances for success here have been increased by his withdrawal from the election for the mayor of London.
No politician really knows how to tackle transport, and experts that do have a clear vision, usually put forward proposals that are electoral suicide
To digress for a moment, I am sure Raynsford would have been an excellent mayor. He would certainly have had my vote – the first Labour representative to do so since a school mock election in 1959. Under no circumstances will I vote for Lord Archer.
Thankfully, Raynsford will continue in his position of construction minister, where he has done an outstanding job and was deservedly promoted by Blair last July. If Dobson gets the Labour nomination, I will probably vote Liberal, or abstain.
Building has been lobbying hard for legislation to enforce the anti-cowboy programme. If such legislation is to have any teeth, it will need to say that a person cannot take part in any construction operation without a licence. Such a system does exist in some countries, and certain Australian states, although the ease with which it could be policed and enforced in Britain must be open to question.
Ministers have shown little enthusiasm so far for such a major intervention in the market. If the government prefers to implement the recommendations for a quality mark made by Tony Merricks’ cowboy taskforce, as seems more likely, it will need to put real ministerial impetus and cash behind its two pilot projects. The Merricks scheme will not work unless the public know how to get hold of a competent tradesperson when needed and the reputable firm does not face a massive cost disadvantage compared with the sole trader who is not registered for VAT.
The third topic is the Movement for Innovation. This initiative, driven forward after the publication of the Egan report under the dedicated chairmanship of Alan Crane, has already achieved massive involvement from major players in the industry. The number and value of the demonstration projects has far exceeded Prescott’s highest hopes. That is very positive. What is now needed is for more results to be put in the public domain. We need to know what performance improvements are being made, how they are being achieved and benchmarked, and what progress is being made towards the Egan targets.
