Scottish MPs complain over Olympic construction jobs
Scottish MP's have complained that the construction jobs created by the 2012 Olympics have disproportionately favoured English firms.
The Glasgow Evening Times reports that a parliamentary question by the Scottish National Party's Olympic's spokesperson has revealed that contractors from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have won less than 2% of the work from the 2012 construction programme. This has led the spokesperson, Pete Wishart MP, to complain that the programme has given an uneven boost to construction recruitment across the UK's devolved regions.
English based companies have been able to create hundreds of construction jobs thanks to the Olympics, with 98% of the contracts - some £5bn in funds - awarded to English firms. Conversely, Scottish firms have been awarded £22m of contracts, Northern Irish firms £17m and Welsh firms awarded just £570,000 of work - far less than even overseas companies, who were given £12m in contracts.
The SNP has complained that the Olympics were supposed to create jobs in construction for firms across the UK.
In a press release from the Scottish political party, Mr Wishart questioned whether the construction projects had been marketed fairly.
The criticism follows accusations made in 2007 over the shortlist for the Athletes village site, which was accused of a "Londoncentric" bias after only two firms from outside the M25 ring made it onto the list out of a total 430 applicants.
In February, the SNP's leader Alex Salmon registered further complaints when he claimed that out of 2,800 bids for work from Scottish firms only 17 contracts had been awarded. This was similar to the same proportion seen throughout the country - 20 out of 5,000 bids in Yorkshire, 12 out of 2,000 in the North-East.
Author: William Hobson
Keywords: construction jobs, jobs in construction, construction recruitment