The leader of Scotland's construction industry today hailed the prospect of a consensus deal on the Scottish budget as good for construction.

Following a round of negotiations between Scottish Ministers and opposition parties, it is expected that the final budget will be approved unanimously by MSPs this afternoon.

The package of measures is set to include:

• A £230m of accelerated spending on capital projects.
• A guarantee for all apprentices to complete their training if they are made redundant.
• Money for an additional 7,800 apprenticeship places in 2009/2010.
• Progress on the Scottish Futures Trust with the fist projects to get underway in 2009.
• A £60million town centre regeneration fund.

Proposals by the Green Party for a new insulation and energy efficiency scheme are also expected to be included however they may not receive the full £33m funding package that was proposed by Scottish Ministers last week.


Speaking ahead of the vote at 5.00pm Michael Levack, Chief Executive of the Scottish Building Federation said: "2009 is set to be another difficult year for Scottish construction. Last year over 20,000 construction jobs were lost, resulting in a loss of skills and expertise that may take years to recover.

"I am pleased by that the seriousness of the situation has been understood and that consensus appears to have broken out at Holyrood."

He added: "By delivering for apprentices, accelerating capital spending and bringing forward the first Scottish Futures Trust projects this year, real progress is being made. More still must be done to create work in the short term and sensible heads must prevail regarding the home insulation and energy efficiency programme proposed by the Greens.

"However, the challenge now is to start putting these new commitments into action."

(GK/JM)