Opinion

‘Construction cannot cope with requirements of 1.5m new homes target’

A selection of readers’ comments about news and issues in the industry from across the CIOB community and social media.

The government has pledged to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2029. Image: Roger Utting | Dreamstime.com

‘1.5 million homes is completely achievable – but they must be good quality’

Former Mace director Mike Reader MP believes the pace of delivery will be important to achieving the government’s new homes target, but says this “must not come at the expense of quality”.

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With increased taxes, National Insurance, shortages of labour in the construction industry and materials including concrete, I would suggest that this target is not achievable for the government.

This is another one of their b***s*** moments where people with no construction background are trying to impress people that they will achieve their goal, but the construction industry cannot cope with the requirements.

We have heard that 10 new towns are to be built – but there is no mention of road/infrastructure works, shops, retail, leisure facilities or increasing expenditure for doctors, dentists, or hospitals to cope with this situation.

They need somebody with a good construction background to make promises about delivery, not people who stick their hand in the air and think of a silly number.

John McGee

'ICE know they screwed up': Korean detainees' lawyer on chaotic raid at Georgia battery plant

Atlanta-based lawyer Charles Kuck speaks to GCR editor Rod Sweet about the detention of 316 South Korean engineers and technicians.

These are highly educated, very proud Korean engineers, why would any of them want to come back helping the US build a factory??

@patchin1

Wow! I used to work internationally as an engineer. If I were caught up in that kind of situation, I would never go back, and I would share my story widely!

@charliesimar7541

'Everyone must take responsibility for safety'

Alana Paterson, chair of the IPAF International Safety Committee and head of health, safety and environment at Taylor Woodrow, discusses the importance of empowering the workforce to call out safety risks in powered access.

Always have thought there would be a very interesting study versus the US construction industry where the general contractors are firmly given sole responsibility for safety and their track records on safety incidences and breaches positively or negatively affect their insurance premiums by some considerable margin! Any takers?

Chris Soffe, CIOB past president and non-executive director at Gleeds

Did you know my father?

A CM reader is hoping to connect with anyone who remembers working with Steve Donoghue at Kinnear Moodie.

I’m trying to find information about my father, Steve Donoghue, who used to work for Kinnear Moodie in a supervisory role in London and Suez in the 1970s and 1980s. His last post was in Selby putting a service tunnel under the River Ouse. If you have any information, please drop me a line at [email protected].

Steve Donoghue Jnr

Share your views on the latest industry issues by posting comments online at www.constructionmanagement.co.uk or by emailing the editor at [email protected].