UK: Ahead of the Autumn Statement tomorrow, the Construction Products Association is urging the Chancellor to shift from current to capital spending in order to inject funding into repair, maintenance and infrastructure, as outlined in the CPA's submission to the Treasury last month.

Diana Montgomery, chief executive of the CPA, said: "Current spending, such as that on welfare and pensions, is set to rise from £629bn to £674bn by 2013-14, yet government is cutting capital investment by 21% over the same period, even though independent economic research shows that for every £1 invested in construction, the economy benefits by £3."

The CPA also called for government to play a crucial role in providing householders with incentives to invest in measures that will save energy.

"We welcome the Government's Green Deal initiative but would like to see more being done to encourage its take-up," said Ms Montgomery.

"If the Green Deal were to provide only 10% of what the Energy Minister stated it would do, this would generate an additional £4bn for the economy as a whole. This activity would benefit SMEs and boost employment, throughout the country and not just in the South East.

"Despite the Treasury being more vocal on infrastructure investment in recent months, most schemes have struggled to get off the ground. We hope that any announcements made in the Autumn Statement this week do not share a similar fate."