Building boom's 5,000 jobs hope

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Wales is experiencing an unprecedented construction boom that is at its highest for 30 years, according to senior industry figures.

They say the growth of the cities of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport is driving development in west and north Wales.

It is predicted that more than 5,000 new jobs will be needed every year until 2011 if the boom continues.

The three south Wales cities - Cardiff, Newport and Swansea - are currently undergoing major construction work.

This has never happened before, there's never been this huge increase in construction levels in Wales Cathy McLean, RICS

In Cardiff city centre, buildings in the Hayes area have been demolished to make way for a £535m St David's 2 shopping complex.

Just over 10 miles down the M4, in Newport roads and the retail sector are being revamped ahead of the Ryder Cup in 2010.

And Swansea is also undergoing changes with the redevelopment of the SA1 docks area, with further plans for a £1bn transformation over the next 20 years.

Cathy McLean, the director of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said the cities were seeing "unprecedented" levels of construction.

"You only have to drive along and see how many cranes there are.

New jobs

"This has never happened before, there's never been this huge increase in construction levels in Wales.

"Now we're seeing further development in Newport and Swansea, and then it's going out towards west Wales, as well, and north Wales."

Construction skills, an organisation which represents the building trade, says more than 5,000 new jobs will be needed every year until 2011, to meet the current boom.

It anticipates more than 400 new projects over the next five years, with a value of nearly £15bn.

But one butcher from Newport market said the city's regeneration was having an "absolutely catastrophic" impact on business.

Buildings in the Hayes area of Cardiff have been demolished

Mike Turner said the regeneration was being handled badly.

"We never, ever had empty stalls downstairs in this market, people were queuing to get a stall because Newport market is a lovely market, it's a brilliant market," he said.

"Now we have empty stalls."

And Environmental campaigner Gordon James from Friends of the Earth Cymru has also raised concerns about the impact of construction, and the energy-efficiency of buildings being built.

"Buildings in Wales are responsible for about half the carbon dioxide emissions," he said.

"We have the technology, we have the know-how, we can build energy efficient buildings, we can build environmentally friendly buildings but we're not doing so."

Bog-standard concrete

However, John Burrows, the chief executive of Newport Unlimited, which is behind the city centre's regeneration project, said most of the city's developments had the environment at their heart.

Mr Burrows said regenerating city centres was in itself a sustainable measure, as it used brown-field sites instead of green-field developments, and made use of existing transport infrastructure and facilities.

"They're not bog-standard concrete buildings any longer," he said.

"The industry itself is interested in it because the consumers are starting to be very discerning about the impact the houses that they are buying will have on the environment."