Lord Mandelson, business secretary, has announced a review of productivity and skills across the sector to “help British firms”.

Kirsty Hall, team leader at technical recruiter rgb, told Recruiter she thought the review was necessary:

“One thing we have to do is make sure we don’t put people off planning as a career. Because of the redundancies, the government needs to send out the message loud and clear.”

A spokesperson says the review will “assess the state of productivity in engineering construction in the UK and identify the key inhibitors to productivity including skills aspects”.