BSRIA (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) ceo, Andrew Eastwell, has responded to the Treasury's Spending Round announced last week, saying there were few surprises.
He said: 'A number of key issues were put forward: Firstly there was the promise of a strike price for electricity that may bring the construction of new nuclear a little nearer. Without this underpinning of future revenues the private sector is always going to be shy of the massive investments needed with very long term recovery periods.
'Secondly there was the promise of additional investment incentive for shale gas exploration. Shale gas has the potential to fill a difficult hole in energy supply whilst the nuclear builds take place.'
Mr Eastwell continued: 'One of the difficult issues our industry is going to face is the additional loss of leadership/sponsorship and infrastructure that civil servants have given us through departments such as DCLG, BIS and DECC. As their resources have been pared to the bone, it is unsurprising that delays associated with regulation, planning reform, energy reduction programmes (Green Deal for example) are becoming ever more visible. The question is do we have the energy will and resource to fill that void?'
'In a nutshell, my take-away from this statement is one of the need for self-reliance and the need to build better 'regulation' from within our community, rather than expect government to lead. Either that or don a cowboy hat,' he concluded.
