GOVERNMENT WILL NOT RESCUE ´BRICK´ INDUSTRY

Addressing a conference at the Caja Vital savings bank in Vitoria last week, Economics Minister Pedro Solbes said he did not believe the government should come to the rescue of the construction industry, which is currently at a standstill. He said he would welcome any "sensible idea" about easing the crisis as long as it did mean the government substituting the construction and real estate companies "when things go badly". He said: "I find that very difficult to accept". When the mortgage crisis began to hit home owners last October, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero asked banks to "keep the financing tap" open to real estate companies which he said generated wealth and a high number of jobs. Last week, Sr Solbes said one way out of the crisis was for the construction companies to build so-called protected housing, equivalent to the UK's council housing, which were in greater demand than more expensive housing.