Dundee is facing an exodus of talented workers that could lose the city millions of pounds and future jobs, it has been claimed.
Councillor Kevin Keenan has demanded that the council take action to prevent a raft of construction workers emigrating from Dundee in search of work following the high-profile collapse of Muirfield Contracts.
The Labour group leader said the council’s own building service should be expanded to protect labourers’ livelihoods and increase the city’s ability to compete for multimillion-pound projects.
Hundreds of workers lost their jobs in the collapse of Muirfield Contracts and there have been growing calls for the council to employ them on sites across the city’s £1 billion waterfront redevelopment.
In a letter to city council chief executive David Martin, Mr Keenan said: “Dundee’s construction industry received a considerable blow with the recent demise of Muirfield Contracts, leaving the city without a sizeable construction company that may have been better placed to compete with national companies for larger contracts.
“I am sure that our officers and workforce have the skills and expertise that would see Dundee Contract Services expand to be in a position to take on considerable parts of our city’s own ambitious capital plan.
“I am sure that every citizen and politician in Dundee would have no problem in supporting money that Dundee will spend being used to employ Dundonians directly.
“If we expand the construction section of Dundee Contract Services we would retain the skills within the city as well as providing more training and employment opportunities.
“Dundee as a city will always need a construction industry, yet if we continue to use national companies who ship in their workforce, our city only sets up its own future skills shortage.
“If we don’t consider taking action ourselves, Dundee will have to continually bring other people into the city to do jobs that our people should be doing.”
Mr Keenan added that he hoped council officials would break building contracts down into “bite-size chunks” so local companies can better compete with bigger firms.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “The chief executive will be responding directly to Councillor Keenan in due course.”
Local businesses, unions and politicians have previously warned that the V&A and waterfront construction could damage the city rather than revive it if labour and materials are outsourced.