Construction Industry

Baroness Prosser Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Prosser (Lab)]

My Lords, I, too, add my thanks to my noble friend Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan for putting this debate on today’s Order Paper. It is both timely and important. I am announcing to the House a small claim to fame. Over 25 years ago, I became the first woman to take a seat on the Construction Industry Training Board. It was a mixed experience, but it gave me a lasting interest in and a respect for the industry, with all its faults and foibles.

My first meeting happened to be the last for the then chairman. To mark his retirement and celebrate his contribution we all repaired to the Connaught Rooms in Holborn for a slap-up lunch. The chairman called order and said, “Welcome, lady and gentlemen”. He then said, “I am happy to say that this is the first and last time I will have to say that”. Needless to say, I did not take the welcome to refer to me. However, I stuck it out and, I hope, went on to make a contribution to the work of the board.

The industry still does not have a good reputation in the equalities arena. While things have moved on since my CITB experience, there remains much room for improvement. In spite of the sterling efforts of Women and Manual Trades and the more recently established Women into Construction Project, women represent only 11% of the construction workforce. Most of them are in office-based jobs, with only 2% working in manual occupations. The Women into Construction Project, entitled Be Onsite, grew out of the work of the Olympics in Stratford and is supported by CITB Construction Skills. Two years of funding will help broker work placements, job opportunities, and training and support for women in the construction and property sectors.

In February this year a cross-party parliamentary inquiry looked into the question of creating construction jobs for young people. It made a number of recommendations, many of which were about better training, but a number of which also addressed the need for improvements in public-sector contracts and procurement arrangements, and improved employment experiences. The preponderance of so-called self-employment is hardly designed to attract the best talent and continues to be a reputational risk for the industry.

There are, however, some very exciting construction projects coming through. The controversial Hinkley Point development, which is likely to go ahead between 2014 and 2023, will provide 25,000 job opportunities over that time, with 5,600 on-site workers at the peak of the construction. The development will involve the investment of over £6 million into West Country training facilities. The nuclear power development in Anglesey will create 6,000 jobs, and in Moorside, adjacent to Sellafield, 5,000 jobs are expected during construction.

To prepare for future nuclear decommissioning in west Cumbria, a new construction skills centre has opened, ready to provide people with the skills needed to deliver a wide variety of construction projects, including public buildings and homes. This is being funded by Nuclear Management Partners to the tune of £4 million. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is putting in £2 million and the local college £1 million. By any standards these are significant sums of money that will provide the industry and the economy with much-needed skills for the future, and will enable the industry to move forward.

It is an accepted view that construction acts as a generator at the heart of the economy, and in no sector is this more true than housing, where the knock-on effect from the supply chain sends positive ripples through the furniture industry, white goods, carpeting and flooring, soft furnishing and transportation. The case for increasing the supply of social housing—in other words, by building more homes—has been well made and is well understood. The economic effects, directly and via the supply chain, are pretty clear.

Savings would also be made via the reduction of housing benefit paid directly into the pockets of private landlords—not to speak of the reduction in misery and anxiety brought about by the uncertain and often shoddy nature of private renting. The Government’s apparent aversion to the building and provision of more social housing cannot be excused by economic arguments, because it just is not so. A perceived aversion to all things public is costing us money, not saving it.