Blogs

The clear message coming through from last week's BMF events - the golf day, the centenary dinner and the Members' Day - is that now, more than ever, there's huge need for industry to come together and talk.

Oh dear. The CPA have looked at the figures and reckon that the construction industry is going to see the biggest fall for 30 years this year, with housing starts their lowest point ever - or since 1924 which for most of us comes to the same thing.

So Ian Pearson has been promoted in the cabinet reshuffle to become economics minister to Treasury.

So the Climate Change Committee says current energy efficiency policies for domestic sector are not enough for the government to reach its own targets on emission reductions under the Climate Change Act.

I'm going back onto my soapbox about the boiler scrappage scheme again. Bear with me, but there's been quite a lot of misinformation about it and I want to let off some steam.

Poor old Nick Clegg. For years the LibDems have complained that they don't get enough attention from the mainstream media (although Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown might have cause to disagree). No sooner does the LibDem leader out-perform Cameron and Brown on a TV election special than the spotlight is well and truly on him.…

Well, the Construction Products Association warned us last month that we couldn't take the growth in construction output for granted. Looks like they were right.

What are we expecting from today's Budget?

Economics is one of those subjects that few of us lay-people really understand. Instead we rely on commentators, journalists and actual economists to make sense of it all for us.

I make absolutely no apology for the huge number of stories about charity fund-raising that we've been featuring recently.