C O N S T R U C T I O N E M P L O Y E R S F E D E R A T I O N T H E V O I C E O F T H E I N D U S T R Y
#SAFETYREBOOT 2022 Safety Reboot, the CEF’s month- long health and safety initiative, took place throughout January. The aim of the initiative was to encourage construction companies to stop work for about 15 minutes, once a week throughout January, to take time to focus on key areas of health and safety. Resources on 11 topics developed by the CEF Health & Safety Committee are available on the CEF website. These include question packs and discussion aids on three new topics - asbestos, respirable crystalline silica and underground services. The resources were to be used to start conversation and interaction between the workforce on important health and safety issues that they encounter every day on site. Of course, given the ongoing Covid-19 circumstances, it was essential that social distancing was observed. Read the next issue of NI Builder Magazine for a full round-up of the month-long initiative.
Assembly Election ConstructionManifesto CHALLENGES FACING CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY CALL FOR AMBITIOUS AGENDA FROM NEXT EXECUTIVE…
As we move towards May’s Assembly Election, the CEF has laid out the sector’s key asks of the next Executive in the context of fulfilling the need for a sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic to help stimulate and grow the local construction sector.
capital budget that delivers key projects such as the remaining Executive Flagships, the York Street Interchange and the A1 Junctions as well as an absolute commitment to funding NI Water’s infrastructure programme over the coming decade. • The establishment of an independent Infrastructure Commission as well as delivering fundamental reforms to the governance and financing
The CEF states this must include, at a high level: • Greater consistency in
procurement practice across the public sector, accompanied by the establishment of a Procurement Review Service, which seeks to avoid costly and time-consuming legal challenges. • Agreement of a multi-year
structure of the Housing Executive and NI Water.
CEF members were encouraged to share images of their workforce getting involved on social media using the hashtag #SafetyReboot.
• Substantive changes, by way of a new Planning Act, to our two- tier planning system, which seek to drastically speed up decision making processes. • Setting an ambitious target of completing a minimum of 9,500 new homes for each of the next 15 years in order to meet our housing need. • A significant package of measures to enable the drive to net zero that must include a funded and ambitious housing retrofit strategy. The full manifesto can be read via: https://www.cefni. co.uk/downloads/CEF_2022_ Manifesto.pdf
NI EXECUTIVE BUDGET 2022-25 In mid-December, the NI Executive published its draft Budget 2022-25 for consultation. The consultation is open for a 12-week period until Monday, 7 March. This is of some concern, as it leaves very little time for the agreement and passage of a Budget Bill before the Assembly dissolves for May’s election on or around March, 24. The CEF are currently drafting its response to this and will also be formally engaging with Departmental officials.
14 | NI BUILDER
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