Industry needs some stability and ministers who can begin to understand their patch.
One of the most respected political figures in the sector, Nick Raynsford, is urging new prime minister Theresa May to give Cabinet ministers clear runs at their roles and desist from the modern practice of constant reshuffles.
May yesterday unveiled her new Cabinet which saw only Jeremy Hunt and Michael Fallon survive with their jobs intact.
Speaking to Construction Manager, Raynsford said that there had often been a ridiculous turnover of ministers with too many in the post for less than a year. “The constant chopping and changing made it hard to put in place long-term policies,” he said.
Instead, policy was driven by short-term initiatives put in place to “get a good headline”. He said that ministers needed time to get to know their sector and the players in it.
Raynsford, who as the Labour MP for Greenwich until the last election occupied ministerial positions covering housing, planning, construction and local authorities and London between 1997 and 2005, has just published a new book which analyses how policies are best translated in delivery – and highlights successes and failure.
Substance not Spin cites the constant changing of housing ministers as an example of failure. “This is slightly tongue in cheek but over the last 20 years there have been 13 housing ministers, yet between 1945 and 1960 we had four housing ministers and built rather more new homes,” said Raynsford.
Nick Raynsford on ….
Theresa May
The general consensus is that she is quietly competent – which I’m sure is correct – but how far will she play the nasty cards to appease her own party. At the Home Office her department was responsible for the vans driving around London saying “migrants go home” on the side.
David Cameron
His legacy will always be overshadowed by the referendum and his terrible miscalculation and overconfidence that he would triumph.
Also he was never rigorous enough in pursuing the agenda – like The Big Society and environmental commitments.
Jeremy Corbyn
80% of the parliamentary party backed a no confidence vote – if this was another organisation and 80% of middle management had no confidence in their boss their position would be seen as untenable. Whatever his merits he is not perceived by the electorate to be a credible prime minister and there is no question we need to change leader.
He said that often performance of ministers didn’t factor whether they stayed in their post or not, which could be down to a whim of how they appeared on the Today Programme.
“Theresa May needs to give new ministers a clear brief and let them get on with the job until the next election, unless they were clearly failing to do the job,” he said.
As part of a brutal reshuffle, Greg Clark will head up a new department, Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which the Department of Energy and Climate Change has been rolled into. The restructure has been interpreted as a demotion for energy and climate change policy and panned in some quarters, with former labour leader Ed Milliband calling it “plain stupid”.
However, Greg Clark is known to take climate change seriously, so there is hope the green agenda will not be forgotten as part of the restructure. The former business minister, Sajid Javid, takes Clark’s place at the DCLG and Chris Grayling becomes transport secretary.
Raynsford said that government should also improve its scrutiny processes – so that policy proposals can be properly scrutinised before passing into law: “If you look at present regulations, proposals for starter homes and Right to Buy have all been passed in the recent Housing Act – yet we have been presented with very little detail and little understanding by government of the impact they will have.
“Although the book is not about recent events it totally illustrates what happens when a dangerous rift occurs between Westminster and the public, which we’ve seen the consequences of now. Seen some unprincipled politicians putting their own self interests completely before everything else.”
Raynsford said the industry needed to act quickly to make its case to the government of the importance of migration to the sector and to the economy and to stabilise the economy, and the need to invest in housing.
“In my opinion there is no way we can deliver housing targets of 200,000 a year without public subsidy.”
His remarks come as ICE president Sir John Armitt announced it was setting up a Brexit leadership group to help politicians and civil servants “negotiate the best possible deal” for infrastructure in the UK.
Writing in his blog on the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) website, Armitt said the group will “gather expert knowledge, data and evidence on what it agrees are the fundamental issues” facing the infrastructure sector. It will then provide “compelling evidence based briefings” to Brexit negotiators, he added.
Armitt will chair the group, which will include Skanska UK CEO Mike Putnam, Crossrail boss Andrew Wolstenholme, RICS president Amanda Clack, former ICE president Geoff French, head of infrastructure at law firm Pinsent Masons, Richard Laudy, and KPMG global infrastructure chair James Stewart.
Substance not Spin, an insider’s view of the success and failure in Government is published by Policy Press £14.39.
