§ Mr. Beanasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress he has made on the proposal to improve the consultative arrangements between the Government and the construction industry; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. FreesonFollowing consultations with the National Consultative Council for the Building and Civil Engineering Industries I have set up a Construction Industry Liaison Group which will provide a more immediate and direct contact between the Government and the construction industry than is possible under the formal consultative machinery. Mr. Roger Warren Evans has already been appointed Industrial Adviser on Construction to the Department and he will be a member of the liaison group. These developments will supplement the existing arrangements for consultation.
The terms of reference of the new group are to consider and keep under regular review the situation in the construction industry, with particular reference to the balance of supply and demand and the planning and other measures needed to enable them to meet future increases in demand quickly and economically.
I, or in my absence my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, will chair the new group and the other members will be:
J. H. S. Burgess. Under-Secretary, Construction Industries Directorate, Department of the Environment.J. R. T. Douglas. Chairman, Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors; Joint Managing Director of R. M. Douglas Construction Ltd.R. Foster, OBE. President, National Federation of Building Trades Employers; Chairman, Foster Melbourn Holdings Ltd.B. G. Gwyn, MC. Chairman of the Cement Marketing Co. Ltd.; Member of the Executive Committee of the National Council for Building Material Producers and Chairman of its Forecasting Panel.391WL. C. Kemp. National Secretary (Construction) Transport and General Workers Union; Operatives Secretary Civil Engineering Construction Conciliation Board; Deputy Chairman, Construction Industry Training Board.H. R. Oakley. Senior Partner in J. D. & D. M. Watson Ltd., Chartered Civil Engineers; Member of Council of Institution of Civil Engineers.Sir Idwal Pugh, KCB. Second Permanent Secretary, Department of the Environment.G. F. Smith, CBE. General Secretary, Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians; Member of Trades Union Congress General Council.E. F. Starnes. Managing Director, Thorn Benham Ltd.; Member, Council of Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association.Sir Roger Walters, KBE. Architect to the Greater London Council.R. Warren Evans. Industrial Adviser on Construction, Department of the Environment.Sir Hugh Wilson, OBE. Chairman of the Strategy Committee of the EDCs for Building and Civil Engineering.The first meeting of the group will be held shortly.