SEC calls on PM to help ailing construction industry

The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group has asked the prime minister to implement a productivity plan to improve the ailing construction sector.

It has also written to Theresa May to seek confirmation that construction is within the remit of the new Economic and Industrial Strategy Cabinet Committee.

SEC Group has also called on the May to consider its three-point action plan to raise productivity levels.

It proposes using project bank accounts and ring-fencing cash retentions to overcome the lack of cash flow security, and also using collaborative delivery and using more digital technology to replace outdated procurement and contracting practices.

SEC chairman Trevor Hursthouse said the industry needs to change in the wake of the Brexit vote.

He added: “Time is no longer on our side. Post-Brexit we have to be leaner and fitter as an industry to add greater value to our clients – not cost – and to enable investment in the technologies that will ultimately improve the commercial health of the industry’s SMEs that deliver the bulk of its output. 

“We are asking that the government gets on board to help us drive the necessary changes.”