Chief executive worried the government is getting the wrong message

锘縏he chief executive of privately held contractor Willmott Dixon has accused listed firms of talking up the current health of the market in order to protect their share prices.

Rick Willmott said the language used by publicly listed companies was in danger of giving the wrong message to the government at a time when firms were being hit by falling order books.

鈥淧lcs are less eager to recognise the reality because there is no immediate financial incentive,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat would government draw from some of the updates? That 鈥檈verything is hunky dory and our measures don鈥檛 seem to be impacting too badly on a sector that said it was beholden to us.鈥欌��

He cited the recent forecast from the Construction Products Association, which said prospects for the sector in the next two years were 鈥渧ery poor鈥�.

He added. 鈥淭he last thing I want is the government to get the wrong impression about the industry. I want [it] to be thinking they鈥檝e got a real issue with 10% of the economy and need to do something.鈥�

Topics