Professional Builders Merchant

Yet despite mischief making in certain quarters, the issue is certainly not a ‘coalition breaker’. The two political parties have always held a clear stance on electoral reform, and frankly I think it is rather healthy to encourage a sensible debate on the issue.

What it has done, however, is to throw the composition of our government into sharper focus. Despite the pressures it has faced since coming to power and the now rather clichéd ‘difficult decisions that simply had to be taken’ mantra, it has been a relatively stable power sharing agreement. But this is all changing as we rapidly approach its first anniversary and it is absolutely certain that the honeymoon period is well and truly over for the coalition — it is now too late to play the ‘newbie’ card, and no longer can they put the blame entirely on the previous regime.

Despite pledges to ‘roll back the state’, Cameron’s Localism agenda is coming under threat whilst the wizard idea of ‘Project Merlin’ to get the banks lending to businesses has been met with distinctly muted enthusiasm. Perhaps more pertinently, the rise in VAT to 20% at the turn of the year has compounded many of the problems faced by industry and the general public alike.

Numerous industry stakeholders continue to warn that the ‘black economy’ will profit, whilst rogue traders only add to the misery being felt by legitimate tradespeople nationwide. Furthermore, sub-standard workmanship will hardly contribute to the oft-discussed need to improve the quality of the country’s ageing housing stock.

A further looming concern is the fuel duty increase due on April 1st. The BMF has joined forces with the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association to back the Fair Fuel UK Campaign which aims to persuade the government to abandon the increase and to deliver on the promise to put in place a fuel price stabiliser.

The core of the campaign is the launch of a website petition to be sent to politicians and the BMF is encouraging its members to sign the petition to demonstrate the depth of feeling against further increases in fuel duty. PBM naturally endorses this view and the petition can be found online at www.FairFuelUK.com

In a letter to the Chancellor on the subject, the BMF’s Managing Director Chris Pateman said: “The Builders Merchants Federation firmly believes your coalition government ought to be sensitive enough to adapt your tax & spending policies if we (industry) are to bring about the private enterprise-led recovery you seek.”

With inflation continuing to rise and the recovery continuing to stutter, the government is under ever-growing pressure to perform — and the fact that the Budget is but a few weeks away underlines this all the more. The final words of Chris’ letter to Mr Osborne are therefore particularly apposite: “On 23 March you give your Budget Statement. We urge you to use that opportunity to ease the hardship being suffered by industry, and to foster business-friendly conditions for merchants.”

As they say in Parliament, “Hear, hear!”