After the Queen?s speech in November and as we enter into a new session of parliament, many believe that there is little chance of significant acts being passed before the next general election. In fact you could say what we have is what we are stuck with until after the election in the middle of next year.

So whilst the UK is still in the midst of a recession this may not be a terribly encouraging outlook for the country. A crumb of comfort for the construction industry including construction surveying jobs is that an international survey conducted by KPMG, shows most industry professionals believe profits will stay the same or increase by middle of 2010.

The Asia Pacific area came out of the survey as having the most confidence that the industry would pick up. In the UK half of those surveyed revealed that order books and profit levels were much the same as last year, but there will still be a reliance on a new government to provide a further stimulus to the construction industry.

With recession brings the concern that the industry will end up with a shortage of professional skills in construction surveying and project management roles. This was the case 20 years ago when the knock on effect resulted in delays to construction projects and spiralling costs.

Hopefully this will not happen when the economy picks up again next year, and some politicians are supporting calls for VAT to be slashed to help boost the construction industry. There was at least a three year agreement put in place last year between the government and employers, securing ?133 million to address skills shortages in the UK construction industry.