The ongoing struggle to attract ambitious, intelligent and potentially highly skilled individuals into the construction industry goes on. And it’s beginning to reach a critical stage, particularly with the 2012 Olympics on the horizon.

Now the UK has never been particularly good at putting together iconic projects, with recent embarrassments including Wembley Stadium and the eternally cursed Millennium Dome. We usually end up paying twice what our European neighbours pay for a similar project; and if that wasn’t enough, they tend to come in years behind schedule. So what about the Olympics?

Well, despite what Lord Coe says (and personally I wouldn’t buy a used car from him), things are not going exactly as planned. It’s not just a case of costs spiralling to previously undreamed of levels either – that’s mainly because the Labour government has terrible difficulty telling the truth. One of the biggest problems is that approximately an extra 30,000 skilled workers need to be found in order to build the stadiums and infrastructure. The potential for disaster is huge.

The cost of building London's Olympic Park is likely to rise by at least £1 billion and the total cost of staging the 2012 games could yet exceed the total £9.3 billion budget announced by the government in March 2007. Consequently, most people outside (and many inside) of the capital couldn’t give a toss about 2012, and many are opening hostile.

Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee, said the huge increase in London's Olympic budget had confused the public and left taxpayers believing that costs have ‘exploded’. The most powerful man in Olympic sport said the government had confused the public by doubling the budget. Rogge suggested the government's handling of the budget review had imperilled public support. Lack of common sense and too few skilled workers could yet create an even worse scenario.

Rod Millington
Editor