By Daniel Hunter
The Office of National Statistics revealed data demonstrating that the construction sector had grown by 2.5% between July and September.
"Customer confidence to spend money and business confidence to invest are the keys to economic growth," said Will Davies - founder and MD of property maintenance and refurbishment company www.aspect.co.uk
"In the construction sector we are confident that we can build on these figures, employ more people and train more youngsters in the future," said Mr Davies who was a mergers & acquisitions expert at Societe Generale before creating aspect.co.uk
The ONS has also reported growth in the manufacturing (0.9%) and service (0.7%) sector. As a whole, the Gross Domestic Product of the UK rose by 0.8% between July and September which is the fastest growth for three years.
The Chancellor George Osborne said: "What's encouraging about these figures is that it's not just services that are growing. Construction is growing and manufacturing is growing."
"We must be aware that growth in the construction sector will falter unless we train more young tradesmen," said Mr Davies.
"All of the building trades have been hit by the recession and an almost non-existent housing market for the past six or seven years. If we don't start training youngsters immediately our economic growth will be dependent upon importing skilled labour from Eastern Europe ," said Mr Davies - who is a long-term campaigner for a return to a traditional system of apprenticeship training.
Research from a leading UK small business insurer published earlier this year discovered that 25% of plumbers and 19% of bricklayers have left their trades over the last four years.
"There are still over one million young unemployed in this country and they are becoming totally demoralised by the job market. Providing them with high quality training is the key to preparing them for a lifetime of work and the construction sector has a large part to play. If we don't deal with the problem we will be paying for our failure for decades to come," said Mr Davies.
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