Construction is the great enabler for our society. We know that because of what we deliver as an industry for our communities: schools, roads, hospitals, houses and commercial developments. This important work underpins how people live, work, rest, learn, recuperate and play. Sometimes this is taken for granted, but at important times such as when our country has to determine where its resources should be focussed and what kind of society we want to create for future generations we cannot afford to allow the strengths and benefits of welsh construction to go unnoticed.

All of the stakeholders in Welsh construction have a duty of care to promote the best practice and the great projects delivered for local people, our economy and society as a whole.

That was one of the messages at the Infrastructure Investment and Delivery in Wales conference held earlier this week. The challenge for delegates was to ask about what the vision was for Wales and determine exactly how infrastructure – roads, transport networks, flood alleviation, or development plans – can benefit Welsh people and create a dynamic built environment. Whilst construction professionals claim that for every £1 spent on a construction project generates about £2 in the economy where are the facts? Can we make a strong business case to secure the funding and resources to build the infrastructure Wales needs to become a leading economy in its own right? What are the right processes to put in place? Where will the funding come from? Some pundits claim that 70% of funding allocated for infrastructure in the UK will actually be private money – what does that mean in Wales?

These are difficult questions, but they can be addressed if we work together. That is the reason why Jane Hutt AM has backed the creation of a Wales Infrastructure Forum to act as the conduit for dialogue between industry and Government. It will be exactly the arena where as an industry we can showcase our excellence, put forward a robust business argument backed with rigorous analysis and hard facts. Because Wales needs our industry to build the right infrastructure