With less than one week to go before the general election on 7 May the construction industry is overwhelmingly throwing its backing behind the Conservative party.
Of the 265 people who took Construction Manager’s online survey 52% (137 people) said that they intend to vote for the Conservative Party in the general election, with only 22% (57 people) intending to vote for Labour.
UKIP received the third most votes with 10%, followed by the Green Party with 5%, SNP with 4% and the Liberal Democrats with 3%.
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A Conservative majority or minority was the profession’s preferred option for the next government, chosen by 32% (83) of the sample. The idea of a renewed Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition was backed by 20.23% (53) of the sample.
Meanwhile, a Labour majority or minority government was backed by 19.85% (52).
A further 14% would like to see a Conservative and UKIP government and 6% would like to see Labour and SNP in power. A Labour/LibDem coalition was only backed by 2% of the sample (five people).
Which party do you intend to vote for in the General Election?
Source: Construction Manager
One ambitious respondent wants to see Plaid Cymru form a government, while another suggested a Belgian-style multi-party coalition “voting as Parliament was supposed to – individually on matters raised by the elected members”.
The overall voting pattern was consistent across employment categories and regions of the country. Employees working for main contractors, SME contractors, consultants, private sector clients, educational organisations, as well as students and the retired, all overwhelmingly said they would select the Conservative Party on their ballot papers.
However, the Labour Party did secure clear support from respondents working in the public sector, with 38% of those working for public sector organisations backing the party in comparison to 21% who said they would vote Tory.
In Scotland, Construction Manager’s poll matched the current predictions of a large swing to the SNP, with 53% of respondents living in Scotland saying that they would be voting for the SNP, with 47% hoping to see an SNP and Labour coalition in power after the election.
Interestingly, two Scottish respondents want to see a SNP and Conservative coalition in power.
Although the majority of the construction profession is likely to be voting Conservative next week, the same cannot be said of architects. The results of a survey conducted by the Architects’ Journal showed Labour to be the clear favourite of that profession.
Around 35% of the 200 architects, students and architectural technologists who completed the magazine’s online poll said they planned to vote for Labour, while the Greens and the Conservatives both picked up 18% of the architecture vote.
Speaking to the AJ, former RIBA president Jack Pringle was not surprised by the result. “The profession, which is mainly poorly paid and interested in social endeavours, is largely centre-left leaning,” he said.
