Red tape and investment delays impact on Government targets

While the government has delivered 65 new hospitals, 500 new primary care centres and 18,000 houses it is failing to deliver on targets set for health, housing, schools and transport.

Since 2000, the government has increased its investment in the built environment and infrastructure, to an estimated £37 billion in the current year, and identified key output targets for the improvements it intends to deliver for the key public services. However, although there have been improvements, it is failing to hit its own targets.

There has been some progress made in tackling the repair and maintenance on schools but the backlog still remains substantial at £8 billion. Existing NHS facilities have a backlog of £3.7 billion still to eliminate and the social housing programme is behind its target homes built, with only 18,000 out of a promised 75,000 houses built one year into a three year programme.

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the Construction Products Association (CPA), says: "There are still too many public facilities in a very poor state of repair, which, considering we are one of the wealthiest economies in the world is totally unacceptable."

Despite this desperate need for action construction companies cite government red tape as a major burden in their attempts to move forward. David Robertson, chief executive of Bibby Financial Services, says: "Red tape has long been a frustration for the industry and research from the Federation of Small Businesses backs up our findings, revealing that keeping up with the ever-changing legislative landscape still presents a burden for many firms."

Finally, despite modest increased growth in some sectors, high energy prices and, as a consequence higher materials costs are putting pressure on the construction industry. Allen Wilen, economics director at the CPA, says: "Unfortunately higher fuel and energy prices are exerting increased pressures upon industry costs. The association estimates that higher energy costs are set to add £1.6 billion to product prices.