One of our key speakers for the Build North Expo is Clive Dickin, CEO of the National Access and Scaffolding Federation (NASC). Clive has an impressive history, with more than 25 years of experience in leadership positions throughout the construction industry.

We spoke to Clive about his upcoming talk, NASC’s progress in 2024 and what they think the industry needs in order to grow in the coming year.

Q: What can people expect to hear from you in your talk at the Build North Expo?

I’ll be talking about the Hidden Risks in Scaffolding. It’s a really major topic, especially as we come through another round of very nasty and storms with the potential to do all sorts of damage to scaffolding and temporary structures. The point is not to scare monger, but to open people’s eyes to the fact that all those terrible pictures and video nasties – of which I can promise a few in my presentation, for those who like that kind of thing – are not inevitable. With the right scaffolding products, used the right way by properly trained people, they can pretty much all be avoided.

There is no completely risk-free environment when you’re working at height. But there is a lot that can be done to make these work environments – many of which are also in public places and spaces, by the way – a great deal less risky.

Q: What’s your take on the construction industry at the end of 2024, and what sort of progress do you want to see over the coming year?

With the government so set on building its way to growth – an ambition which we fully support – there is a lot going on, isn’t there? For us the importance of all this building only being of the highest quality is critical. There is no point putting up rubbish, building poor infrastructure or sub-standard housing. What we build today should be built with many tomorrows in mind.

And this means we need skilled operatives across the industry, including scaffolders. And to be frank I don’t think enough attention is being paid to the issue of the skills crisis, right across the sector. We need to work on immediate solutions for the short-term, as well as those that will have an impact over the medium to long term.

Q: For Scaffolding specifically, what do you make of the government’s plans to get Britain building, and what more can they do moving forwards?

As I’ve already highlighted, we’re fully behind these plans and applaud the ambition. Where we part company a little with the government is when the thinking doesn’t seem to be very joined up. This goes beyond the issue of skills, which I discussed earlier. Things like the increase in employer’s National Insurance and the above inflation increase in the national minimum wage in the Autumn Budget were body blows to small and medium-sized businesses in the sector.

Scaffolding is not a high-margin business to begin with and adding costs like this places a huge extra burden on those running the scaffolding firms that will often be among the first contractors on site when building projects get underway.