ICE features on BBC news - Queen's speech coverage
The media relations team recently had the opportunity to work with the BBC TV news channel to create a news package in response to the Queen’s speech focusing on immigration caps and the possible impact on the civil engineering sector, as well as others.
The segment aired on 25th May on the Six O’Clock news and later on the News at Ten, featuring an interview with ICE Director General Tom Foulkes (segment commences at 23 minutes).
ICE used this opportunity to communicate to the BBC and public its key positions on several infrastructure issues including skills, investment and planning.
Although much of the actual interview was not aired on the final news piece due to time restrictions these points included:
We have significant challenges to face in coming years - to achieve a low carbon economy, establish a secure, clean supply of energy and build capacity in our transport networks in an environmentally sustainable way.
Transforming our energy, transport, waste and water networks to achieve this will create a ‘peak’ in demand for infrastructure, which will drive demand for highly skilled engineers.
Civil engineering is a global profession. Although we want to develop the UK’s skill base so we can rely entirely on domestic skills, to ensure we remain competitive globally we must have the very best engineers working on these projects – and they cannot realistically all come from the UK.
We of course want to keep jobs in the UK where at all possible, there are gaps in specialist areas that we cannot fill domestically.
If we cannot find the people to do the work this could cause delays to crucial projects being delivered such as a fleet of nuclear power stations, high speed rail and renewable energy projects.
This would have an impact on our economic performance, global competitiveness and stall our progress towards a low carbon society.
ICE is continuing to work with the new government, in part through a programme of media engagement, to promote the need for sustained investment in infrastructure, an efficient planning system and ongoing investment in developing a domestic skills base.
For a full synopsis for recent ICE media coverage go here: http://www.ice.org.uk/downloads/final_report.pdf
Contact Details: communications@ice.org.uk