This is an open letter to Scottish first minister Alex Salmond to express my concern at the lack of direction from the government in addressing the pressing concerns of construction in Scotland

Public sector spending has accounted for a significant proportion of construction activity. We now find, when private sector activity is at its lowest point for a generation, public sector spending is similarly at its lowest point. This is already having a damaging and potentially long lasting effect on the industry in Scotland.

As a director of an engineering consultancy in Edinburgh I have watched with interest, frustration then despair as your Scottish Futures Trust policy (SFT) has failed to deliver tangible benefits. It has damaged the construction industry by generating uncertainty and delay at the worst time.

Meanwhile, in England the government has committed some 拢50bn to 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future.

You can and should be doing more to ensure that public sector spending continues to allow the modernisation of our dilapidated schools, health and community facilities, thereby providing the support that my industry needs to survive.

Alasdair MacKerron

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