Jewson took advantage of a visit by a local MP to its Redruth branch to urge the Liberal Democrats to back the cross-industry Get Britain Building (GBB) campaign, which includes the call to cut VAT on repair, maintenance and improvement work to 5%.

The tour of the site by LibDem shadow minister Julia Goldsworthy was organised jointly with the GBB signatory, the Construction Products Association, as part of a drive to make ministers more aware of construction industry issues.

Jewson sales and operations director Neil Lawrence discussed a range of topics with Ms Goldsworthy and highlighted the demands of the campaign, described as “one of the biggest coalitions in the [building] industry’s history”.

“Jewson would like to see government address a number of measures to help stimulate the construction industry,” he said. “The primary focus should be on stimulating demand throughout the construction sector and providing the industry with a much needed boost to strengthen the economy and provide job security at regional and national levels. I [discussed with] Ms Goldsworthy what is required from government if construction is to continue to play a pivotal role in the UK’s economy, and I hope what was discussed will be addressed sooner rather than later.”

Ms Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne, said the 10 action points in the GBB provided “interesting food for thought on measures that could be taken to help stimulate the sector, creating and supporting jobs that will be vital to any upturn in the economy”.

“With a critical shortage of social housing, the government should free up councils to start rebuilding council homes again,” she said.

She also urged the government to invest in “making environmental improvements to the existing housing stock – this would not only help create jobs, it would also cut people’s energy costs”.

The CPA is co-ordinating visits for key ministers and shadow ministers throughout the UK over the summer recess. The objective is for politicians to develop a greater understanding of the industry as whole.

Get Britain Building’s 10-point manifesto:

1. Ensure responsible lending to prudent borrowers coupled with the reintroduction of mortgage interest tax relief.

2. Cut VAT from 17.5% (15% for the next 13 months) to 5% for all building repair and maintenance work.

3. Develop and implement a coherent strategy to deal with the UK’s existing housing stock both in terms of helping to create more homes and making the UK’s existing stock more energy efficient.

4. Set targets for all local authorities to fast track the planning process to release and designate land for social housing.

5. Simplify the planning system.

6. Produce an implementation plan to show the precise timings and location of public spending on schools, hospitals and prisons to ensure that projects are completed in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

7. Introduce a section 106 agreement holiday and then subsequently cap the value of section 106 agreements. Abandon the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy.

8. Reduce the regulatory and fiscal burden.

9. Reform stamp duty so that only higher rates of stamp duty apply to the proportion of the house price which is in the relevant band ie a graduated tax like income tax

10. Reintroduce empty property rate relief.