黑洞社区

Bill Bolsover, former chief executive of Aggregate Industries, took over from Adrian Barden last month. Speaking at the start of his 12-month term, the 59 year old warned that the public building stock would deteriorate rapidly if capital spending cuts were too savage.

He said: 鈥淚f you look at capital spending, it is currently projected to drop to 1.25% of GDP in 2014 (compared with 3.6% in 2009).

It鈥檚 dropping fast and we don鈥檛 want it to drop below 2.25%. If your capital spending drops and you can鈥檛 even maintain the current infrastructure - hospitals, schools, housing - it starts to crumble quickly.鈥�

鈥淚f you can鈥檛 even maintain the infrastructure, it starts to crumble quickly鈥�

Bill Bolsover

Bolsover鈥檚 comments come in the week that the coalition government began to swing the axe on public spending. George Osborne, the new chancellor of the exchequer, announced on Monday where the first 拢6.2bn of savings would be made.

Analysis by the CPA shows that the 拢6bn of immediate cuts could have a big impact on construction output projections for the year. The CPA said that if a third of the cuts - 拢2bn - came from construction spending, it would turn a projected fall in output of 3% in 2010 into a 5% drop.

Bolsover, who also serves on the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council, said the CPA was trying to get a message to the coalition government about construction鈥檚 importance in getting the economy going.

Bolsover continued: 鈥淚鈥檓 banging on the table about the same thing 黑洞社区 is campaigning on with Charter 284: every pound spent in construction generates 拢2.84 in revenue. And seeing as the government can鈥檛 get the economy going through government spending alone, we鈥檙e going to have to do it through the private sector.

鈥淏ut we鈥檝e got to start lending to credible borrowers. Construction is a locally based business, so producers are in this country, employment is in this country and the stuff we build is in this country. But there are a lot of people who need money. Once we do that they will start investing.鈥�