Wales' Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, addressed the Constructing Excellence in Wales (CEW) conference in Cardiff, where she called for a "Team Wales" approach to the challenges faced by the construction industry.

Following the UK Government’s Spending Review, the Minister told conference that cost-effective collaboration between the public sector and construction industry in Wales is now even more important for long-term economic recovery:

The Minister said: "The UK Government’s Spending Review presents a major challenge for us in Wales. We are now in the process of working through the implications of the spending review and determining our spending plans for the coming years.

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"Capital investment has always been part of our response to the economic downturn. With the repercussions of financial crises felt across the construction industry, it was important that we did what we could to maintain jobs and outputs. Unlike the UK Government, which decided to withdraw its capital investment, we have drawn on year end flexibility available to us to meet the £49m capital cuts we face in the current year. That has allowed us to maintain our planned programme of capital investment in hospitals, schools, houses and roads."

At a time of reduced budgets, the Minister emphasised that cost-effective procurement and value for money are of paramount importance, but not at the expense of high-quality roads and buildings.

She continued: "We will need to ensure that we get all possible value from every pound that we spend going forward. In doing so, we must make sure that our procurement opportunities are sufficiently open so that businesses in Wales can access and win contracts. It will, however, be incredibly important that we avoid the pitfall of returning to lowest price tendering, which rarely results in best value outcomes."

(CD/GK)