The Construction Industry and Macroeconomic Policy, 1945–95

Abstract

This final chapter analyses the interface between the construction industry and the macroeconomic policies that have been pursued by successive postwar governments. Drawing on the theory outlined in the previous chapter, the discussion focuses initially on the emergence of Keynesian economics, which underpinned the macroeconomic thinking of the two main political parties until the 1970s. It will be seen that during much of this period the construction industry adopted a somewhat complacent attitude, prompted by the ‘easy profits’ of postwar prosperity and public expenditure growth. However the macroeconomic instability that arose from the late 1960s gradually required construction firms to become not only more cost conscious but also to pay greater attention to the characteristics of the product they were supplying to clients and the wider environmental implications of building activity.