黑洞社区

Vince Cable has criticised public sector clients for shutting out SMEs from taxpayer-funded construction work as they are 鈥渢oo terrified鈥� of European procurement rules.

The business secretary said public sector clients were issuing overly-bureaucratic tenders that effectively preclude SMEs out of a 鈥渕isplaced鈥� fear of contravening European rules.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 need to act like that,鈥� Cable said.

The business secretary also acknowledged that the government鈥檚 flagship green construction policy, the Green Deal, had 鈥済ot off to a very slow start鈥� and 鈥渘eeds energising鈥�, although he did not go into specifics.

On housing, Cable said the government was right to focus on boosting the private ownership market through policies like Help to Buy, but admitted this was causing 鈥渁 problem of affordability鈥�.

鈥淲e鈥檙e grappling with that in different ways,鈥� he added.

Cable was speaking at the National Federation of Builders鈥� (NFB) annual conference in London last week.

Outgoing NFB chief executive Julia Evans told the conference she was pleased the NFB and the construction industry in general were now getting greater attention from government.