Scottish Parliament puts construction under the microscope

The Economy, Energy & Fair Work Committee aims to gather wide range of views on how the industry can be developed to help further drive the Scottish economy.

Specific areas that will be explored are economic impact, access to finance, skills, procurement, infrastructure and innovation. The committee is also keen to hear views on how to encourage young people to take up apprenticeship roles in construction and particularly to tackle the gender gap in the industry.

“Construction is a vital sector in Scotland as it drives and underpins the economy with its knock-on effect on other sectors,” said the committee’s convener, Gordon Lindhurst. “As well as being a major employer, the sector also delivers infrastructure for housing, transport, education and community, and contributes £21.5 billion to Scotland’s gross domestic product.

“However, the sector has its challenges and we want to hear views and suggestions on how these can be overcome. We also want to find out how we can encourage young people to work in the industry, and we’ll be holding consultation work with businesses and colleges over the coming months.”

Some of the questions the committee would like to explore include:

• how important is the construction sector in Scotland as an economic enabler?
• what are the causes of the sector’s productivity challenges?
• what is the future economic outlook and implications of Brexit for the sector?
• what are the sources of and barriers to accessing finance in the sector?
• do you have any suggestions on opportunities to enhance procurement practices across the sector?
• what are your views on the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre?
• how will technological changes (eg robotics, automation) impact on the sector and how can Scotland take advantage of this change?

Scotland has about 46,000 Scottish construction enterprises. The majority are sole traders (74%) and a fifth have under 10 employees. In total, employment is provided to 154,410 people across the sector, representing 7% of the Scottish total. 

Skills Development Scotland data shows that construction was the biggest contributor to the Modern Apprenticeship programme with 6,104 starts, up from 5,934 in 2016/17. However, only 1% of entrants were women, showing more needs to be done to tackle the gender gap in construction trades.

The closing date for receipt of submissions is Wednesday 13 February 2019.

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