Pauline Kelly represented the BWF at the Construction Products Association’s annual meeting between the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) last night. She reports back from the discussion – Although we had hoped to meet Ian Pearson, the Business Minister, he was unable to make it, so Denis Walker, the Head of the Construction Unit at BERR stood in. He was keen to get an idea of the state of industry to convey back to his ministers, so we all had a say to give the picture from our own sectors. I wanted to get the message over regarding the current situation on funding for training, and particularly why funds aren’t re-allocated for other pots when a Scheme proves so popular that its allocation is taken up. I also asked why the chance to reduce VAT on repair and maintenance was not being taken seriously in view of the Isle of Man pilot scheme, and raised concerns about the effectiveness of the government ensuring that its departments adopt its own timber procurement policy. Credit insurance was widely discussed, with the consensus being too little, too late, as was the governments speed in dealing with economic downturn generally. From the comments from other trade associations, we in the joinery sector are doing remarkably well compared to some others. As the representative of Government, Denis Walker wanted to make sure that we were aware of some of the things in the pipeline intended to help the construction industry. Pride of place went to an action plan called ‘New Industry, New Jobs