Three Government Ministers have written to James Wates CBE to tell him they back CITB, but it must continue its programme of reform.
The letter was co-signed by Skills Minister Anne Milton, Housing Minister Alok Sharma, and Industrial Strategy Minister Lord Prior. It acts as an interim statement on the review of Industrial Training Boards, due to be published in full in October.
In it, they outline why they support CITB continuing to have Levy-raising powers, and why they think employers should back the new Levy proposal in the ongoing Consensus vote.
The Ministers said: “Having reviewed the options for making sure that the construction industry has the skills it needs, we have concluded that the CITB should be retained.
“As Mark Farmer set out starkly in his report last year, the construction industry faces some very significant challenges over the coming years, including improving productivity, increasing house-building, and making sure it develops the workforce with the skills it will need in the coming decades.
“We support his conclusion that the CITB has an important role to play in supporting the industry to meet those challenges.”
In response, CITB Chairman, James Wates CBE, wrote: “CITB has made great efforts in recent months to agree with industry the steps it needs to take to improve its effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness, and the CITB has started to implement these changes.
“Rest assured that CITB has listened – and will continue to listen – to concerns of industry. I have no doubt that the ITB Review when published will provide further insights to guide CITB’s evolution.
“I hope that the construction sector is able to rally behind a reformed CITB as one aspect of broader change that needs to take place to modernise and meet GB’s construction needs in the future.”
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), said the ministerial statement now provides some official indication of the Government’s position following its review of the CITB.
He said the FMB supports the general direction of travel and added: "Most people agree that the CITB had lost its way but scrapping it all together would only make the construction skills crisis worse. What we now want to see is for the CITB leadership to embrace a culture of change until we’ve reformed the organisation from head to toe.
“It’s slightly frustrating that we won’t see the detailed content of the Government’s CITB review until after the consensus process has come to an end. We are particularly keen to see some recommendations regarding the need for a governance review as the current structure is not fit-for-purpose. When you look at the make-up of our industry, 99% of firms are small and medium-sized (SME) companies but we don’t see that reflected on either the Board or the Council.
"We recognise and support the need for a streamlined Board of competencies but the CITB will continue to flounder until it is properly representative. For too long, major contractors have called the shots and although they have an important role to play, their role has been inflated – especially when you consider that it’s the small firms that carry out the bulk of the training in our industry.
“Other important reforms include the need for employers and their trade federations to break away from the “tit for tat” mind set. The CITB levy and grant system is about each employer making a proportionate financial contribution towards the overall skills needs of the construction industry – it is not about individual organisations trying to draw down every penny it has paid in levy for their own gain. For the levy and grant system to work effectively in addressing the construction skills crisis, and for the industry to work constructively with the CITB exec, we need to break away from this detrimental mind-set.”
