Letter: Crisis looming

Reports from the Scottish Chambers of Commerce that business confidence in the construction sector has declined sharply come as little surprise.

The prospect of deep cuts in capital investment in next week's UK spending review is one reason why industry confidence is so shaky. The Scottish Building Federation's own analysis suggests that a predicted cut in public capital investment of 1.6 billion in Scotland between now and 2015 places 47,000 Scottish construction jobs at risk - roughly one quarter of the current workforce.

The hope must be that a proportion of these job losses will be mitigated by a rise in investment from the private sector. But with the industry's recovery in such a fragile state, this is by no means guaranteed. If funding cuts of the scale predicted are genuinely unavoidable, the government must introduce other measures, including targeted tax incentives, to stimulate a rapid recovery in private sector construction. Otherwise, the impact on construction industry employment could be truly disastrous.

MICHAEL LEVACK

Chief executive

Scottish Building Federation

Crichton's Close, Edinburgh