Newly conducted research has discovered that nearly one quarter of registered individuals who work within the construction industry did not vote during last week’s general election, with the majority of these individuals blaming a lack of knowledge surrounding party policies behind their decision not to take to the ballot.

After the news that an estimated 66.1 per cent of the electorate in Britain voted during last week’s general election, a team of researchers at a leading business insurance website in the UK has discovered that as many as one quarter of construction workers who were registered to vote last week, made the decision not to.

The team at www.constructaquote.com polled a total of 2,159 individuals working across a range of industries within the construction sector for the purposes of the study. Each participant taking part was aged 18 or over, and revealed to researchers prior to the survey that they were registered, at their current address, to vote in last week’s general election.

Participants were initially asked if they had voted, either at a polling station or by postal vote, during last week’s general election. Whilst the majority (76%) stated that they did vote, almost one quarter (24%) revealed that they had not managed to cast their vote before the 10pm deadline last Thursday evening.

Of the construction workers that did vote last Thursday, the majority (78%) revealed that one of the main motivations for doing so was in order to try and improve the state of the construction industry; particularly due to recent claims that growth in construction and manufacturing has halted.

When relevant respondents were then given a list of potential answers and asked to pick the reasons why they didn’t vote, the most common five answers were revealed as follows:

1. A lack of knowledge surrounding political parties and their policies- 62%
2. I aimed to vote but couldn’t find the time- 36%
3. I had something better to do than vote- 24%
4. I didn’t feel any of the parties had policies that would benefit me personally-17%
5. I only registered to vote to improve my credit score- 8%

Lyndon Wood, CEO and Creator of constructaquote.com, made the following comments regarding the findings of the election study:

“In an industry such as construction, where the political party in charge of the country will have such a huge impact on how people are treated, both in terms of wages and health and safety standards, the fact that so many registered individuals didn’t vote is extremely disappointing.”

He continued:

“I understand that for some people there may have been circumstances out of their control that prevented them from voting last week. However, those who didn’t take the time to read up on party manifestos or watch any of the extensive media coverage in the lead up to the election don’t really have an excuse. If you don’t vote and have your say on how you want this country run, then you really have no right to express your opinion on anything political.”