Wales went to London last week for the National Constructing Excellence Awards and we came back with two out of the twelve awards available. – once again putting a marker down to the rest of the UK to follow our lead. Economic performance figures, contract pipeline and now industry awards all point to the fact that our construction industry in Wales is showing strong signs of recovery.

What we need to do now is build on that good news.

Last week in the Western Mail we pointed out that construction should not rely on the public sector as its main client. Whilst there will be consistent public sector work – just look at the new investment announced for 21^st Century Schools – the commercial sector will begin to recover and that is when our industry must be ready to meet its needs. So, whilst significant progress has been made in the past four years in the procurement processes in our public sector we need to pass on the lessons learnt to our colleagues in the private sector.

That means sticking to our principles of best practice, collaborative procurement and integrated teams. It also means doing what we do even better and making sure we continue to improve. Now is not the time – even as we polish our award trophies – to sit back and relax. We need to push on and make things in Welsh construction even better.