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David Hurcomb might be expected to take a dim view of our new prime minister.

NG Bailey鈥檚 chief executive is speaking less than a week after Theresa May caused some of his peers to no doubt utter a few unmentionable words and bite their fists in resigned fury. But her decision to take another look at the Hinkley nuclear power plant in Somerset - just a couple of hours after developer EDF finally managed to sign the scheme off 鈥� has impressed him.

Some might find his patience remarkable, given that his firm has spent 拢2m bidding for a project it hasn鈥檛 yet started on and for which it, along with joint venture partner Balfour Beatty, is lined up to carry out a 拢464m electrical contract at the site.

May is expected to make her mind up by next month and Hurcomb says: 鈥淚鈥檝e been on this six years, I鈥檓 quite happy to wait eight weeks. She鈥檚 showing her mettle.鈥�

He believes May will be a good PM and was pleased the country was spared the rigours of a Conservative leadership election. 鈥淚 think the best thing ever was that she was crowned as fast as she was, because if we were all waiting until September I鈥檇 be getting very nervous.鈥�

What we won鈥檛 be seeing with May, he says, is what he calls the 鈥渇lippy flappy stuff鈥�. He adds: 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to know where she stands. We鈥檝e had a coalition, a very PR-y prime minister and what we鈥檒l get now is a bit more conviction.鈥�

He鈥檚 less impressed, though, with the way Number 10 made the Hinkley announcement 鈥� 鈥淚 think the comms could have been better鈥� is his polite assessment - but is confident the UK鈥檚 first female prime minister in 26 years will eventually wave the project through.

Why the optimism? 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very good project for the long-term security of energy in the UK. You cannot simply rely on the wind and solar.鈥�

Hinkley has become a byword for a classic British farce - it was supposed to be up and running by next year. Other big infrastructure projects like expanding London鈥檚 airport capacity - for which the preferred option is a third runway at Heathrow - and HS2 could also be seen as areas where there has been too much dithering. Hurcomb is interested in all of them, but wants to see progress towards boots on the ground, less talking and certainly fewer consultations.

He believes May will be a good PM and was pleased the country was spared the rigours of a Conservative leadership election

鈥淭he airport question we just need to get on with,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e are looking rather daft in the eyes of the world. The amount of money that must have been spent on consultants and experts in the last 10 years 鈥� we could have probably built the airport for half that.鈥�

Confidence boost

His comments aren鈥檛 just the exasperated remarks of a vested interest. 鈥淭he challenge will be if the commercial market falls flat and if the government isn鈥檛 raising enough tax: what are they going to do to pump-prime the economy? I would suggest they get on with these projects to give the industry confidence.鈥�

Born in Birmingham 52 years ago, Hurcomb will have been in his current job six years next month. He switched from Carillion, replete with a main board director role and its 拢5bn turnover, to running a family-owned business that was about to see its main income stream - building work - fall off a cliff. In 2009, its turnover was 拢600m. Two years later it had nosedived to 拢419m.

鈥淢y brief was to make the business stronger. We were very heavily exposed to the building market only, which has tanked, really.鈥�

Hurcomb set about moving NG Bailey away from its core mechanical and electrical building work and into other areas like rail and IT. He has the full backing of the Bailey family. 鈥淚 have a huge amount of freedom to drive the strategy. There is a huge amount of responsibility when you look the shareholders in the eye and it鈥檚 their money.鈥�

Certain other privately run contractors have been getting themselves into a pickle recently with chief executives leaving, prompting many to wonder whether family run businesses can do anything but meddle when an outsider is brought in.

鈥淚n any family business, it鈥檚 always a huge issue when the founder has to hand down the reins, and unless there鈥檚 a suitable family member you鈥檙e into a situation with external management. Some families struggle with that; struggle not to interfere.鈥�

For the past 20 years, NG Bailey has had an independent chairman and independent non-executives. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have touched NG Bailey had there not been an independent chairman who I respected and non-execs who were from quality organisations. That professionalism you need. You can鈥檛 have a family coming in on a whim and changing things. It鈥檚 got to be structured.鈥�

Hurcomb says he left Carillion because he wanted to be in charge of a business. 鈥淭he timing worked out quite well. I was spending a lot of time on aeroplanes and not enough at home.鈥�

There were other reasons, too. 鈥淲ith a plc, there is a lot of bureaucracy. The best thing about being a privately-owned company is that you can have an open and honest conversation with your shareholders and cut through all the bullshit. Our shareholders, because they鈥檙e family, have been involved as shareholders for a long time, so you don鈥檛 need to gloss up the message as much as you do with a plc.鈥�

More quoted contractors should be taken private, he believes. 鈥淭he share price is fickle. You can be doing great, but if someone else in your sector isn鈥檛, your share price gets dragged down. Some of the contracting stuff is risky, profit might go up and down and plcs hate that. They want to be showing steady growth all the time.鈥�

Risky business

Risk is something NG Bailey became well aware of a few years ago when it came a cropper on the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) - a relatively unknown PFI scheme in west London that ended up costing it and main contractor John Laing huge sums of money.

While the scheme to rebuild Wembley stadium might be a better known example of a construction project gone wrong, the NPL was just as bad. It was one job which persuaded the Laing family to bale out of construction and a 2006 National Audit Office report found that Laing alone lost 拢67m on the deal, while a 鈥溌�12m [loss was] suffered by other parties in the supply chain鈥�. It was a bad time for Bailey. 鈥淭hey could have gone bust on that,鈥� Hurcomb says.

In 2012 he introduced a Bid/No Bid criteria for prospective work and Hurcomb says he isn鈥檛 interested in just piling up turnover. 鈥淚f [a job] doesn鈥檛 meet [those criteria] and you say I鈥檝e walked away from that job, then I will never berate you for not hitting your profit target. But if you bend the rules, start the job and tell me you鈥檝e got a problem and I find it鈥檚 not hit the Bid/No Bid criteria, you鈥檙e going to be in a difficult place.鈥�

The NPL debacle sobered the firm up and Hurcomb says: 鈥淲hen I say I鈥檓 not taking a risk, [the family] get that. We have well-informed shareholders who do take the long-term view.鈥�

For him and the firm, greed isn鈥檛 good. 鈥淎 lot of business is seen as big and bad, not very inclusive and diverse, with overpaid directors and chief executives. There is a real disconnect between business and the man in the street at the moment, which is not great for UK plc, quite frankly.鈥�

Making sense of Brexit

Business can be a force for good, he says, and it will be business that will make sense of the Brexit vote. He voted Remain and admits he was surprised the result went the other way. European stability was one of the main reasons for his decision. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had peace in Europe for 60 years and people take it for granted.鈥�

He thought, too, more people would look at the economics and vote to stay in. 鈥淭he UK economy was really starting to show a bit of momentum in its recovery and any big change causes uncertainty. What do you do if you鈥檙e not sure? Do you go and splash out on that holiday, kitchen, car, new office building? You don鈥檛. You wait and see what it鈥檚 like for six months. My worry is that it will cause choppy water for the next two or three years.鈥�

He has harsh words for former chancellor George Osborne and his promise of an emergency Budget if the country voted out. 鈥淭hat probably tipped it over the edge. If you start threatening the British electorate they鈥檙e going to give you two fingers. That was a very foolish thing [he said].鈥�

Osborne gets more flak. Hurcomb believes his northern powerhouse project is dead in the water. It鈥檚 already set to be overtaken by May鈥檚 industrial strategy and he says the way to reboot the North is to sort out its transport infrastructure and then tell businesses: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e your assets, now you guys go around the world and sell.鈥� He has some advice for the government on Brexit - pick the brains of those who argued for it, including technology entrepreneur James Dyson and Anthony Bamford, the man who runs digger firm JCB.

鈥淲e need to hear more from these guys. Let鈥檚 get some policy advice from these guys. They鈥檙e both running very successful global brands.鈥�

The repercussions of Brexit have barely been felt yet he says, partly because no one has the foggiest. 鈥淭his is completely uncharted territory. No one鈥檚 got a clue. But this is where we are and we鈥檝e got to be optimistic.鈥� It鈥檚 fair to say the decision wouldn鈥檛 have passed Hurcomb鈥檚 bid criteria test.