Construction will boost the economy

THIS year’s Budget has announced plans for a £3bn investment in infrastructure projects year-on-year from 2015 to 2020. For every £1 invested in construction, £2.84 is returned to the economy, so we are delighted that the Chancellor has prioritised construction to return growth and kick-start the economy.

Additionally, schemes 
dealing with home buying will indirectly affect the house building industry – increasing demand for housing and providing jobs for builders.

House building is just one small aspect of the construction industry, and we would encourage the Government to take a step back and look at additional measures to boost other pockets of the industry.

The Construction4Growth initiative, which 69 employers in Yorkshire and the Humber have signed up to, has been developed by CITB to encourage investment in “shovel-ready” projects to get unemployed construction workers back on site, to grow the economy in the near future.

The Single Local Growth Fund, designed to support transport, housing and skills – originally proposed by Lord Heseltine and recognised in the Budget – highlights the importance of local economies as engines for growth and will reach into the tens of billions once established.

It is through this fund that Yorkshire’s local councils and the Leeds City Region LEP will be given greater spending control, and infrastructure projects such as the Yorkshire and Humber Cross Country Pipeline will flourish and hopefully become more common place.

From: RKM Bridge, Holgate Road, York.

WHILE the Budget was relatively dull, there are still underlying themes that reflect an ideology at odds with David Cameron’s pledge to recognise relative poverty.

Surely the money invested in subsidising mortgages for houses up to £600,000 would have been better focussed on schemes to assist key workers and those on low incomes to access rental properties at less than market rents?

The National Rental Assistance Scheme in Australia, while certainly not perfect, looks to build 50,000 homes by providing not-for-profits, community developers and financial institutions with tax incentives in exchange for agreeing to rent the property out for 10 years at 20 per cent less than market rent. In addition, local authorities provided generous planning incentives for NRAS homes.

In this country, this could create a boost to the construction industry in new builds plus potentially putting back into use the 250,000 long-term empty properties. It would also partially alleviate the lack of social and affordable housing rather than creating another unsustainable housing bubble.

Professional punishers

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

BUSY professional parents who both work full-time, are said to have less patience with their children and punish them severely.

It seems logical, because 
they are the parents who use 
the cringe-making phrase “quality time” to cover the little time they spend with their children.

I have heard some examples of stiff punishments: early to bed for five nights for blowing a back of the hand trump; missing two week’s pocket money for singing rude words to John Lennon’s Imagine song at a family party; grounded for two weeks for saying an uncle was gay and 45 minutes of excessive exercise for saying that Tories were “greedy people”.

All the children involved were under 10 years of age.

Solemn mass for Richard III

From: H Santiuste, Coningsburgh Road, Edenthorpe, Doncaster.

A SYMPOSIUM, organised by the Richard III Foundation, Inc, was held at Ripon Cathedral in 2002 to honour the celebrated monarch’s 550th birthday.

This was followed by a 
solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul, performed in the crypt using medieval Latin liturgy.

Since a precedent has been set, let York Minster and all other churches associated with 
Richard III hold Requiem Masses in his honour alongside the planned ceremony in Leicester Cathedral.

Moreover Pope Francis could perform a Requiem Mass in Rome to acknowledge the personal faith of our last truly Catholic English king.