Rob Oliver Chief Executive Construction Equipment Association Statement on the Prime Minister speech today
“The promised escalation of investment in infrastructure is exactly what we called for in our recent letter to the Chancellor. Priming the construction sector will help avoid unnecessary redundancies and provide us with better roads, school and hospital buildings and more. The real prize is if this leads to the adoption of the newest technologies so that we do indeed “build back better”. CEA members have a great part to play in this with the new generation of environmentally friendly machines with their revolutionary digital systems that ensure that they are operated in the most efficient and productive way.” “The adoption of the newest technologies does, of course, require new investment from plant hire companies and contractors. Like most businesses they have been flattened by the COVID-19 emergency, so we also call for an imaginative approach from the Treasury to allow our customers to renew their plant and equipment with confidence. This can be done through a combination of additional tax allowances on capital expenditure and a scrappage scheme to add some “vroom” to Project Speed”.