Draft Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2018

Gordon Marsden Excerpts

Monday 26th February 2018 General Committees

[Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Henry.

The Opposition welcome the introduction of the levy. It is probably—I don’t know if this is the right term to use—the most venerable of the instruments of its kind, in the sense that it was first introduced in 1964, when we were getting rid of 13 years of Tory misrule and getting in Harold Wilson and the white heat of the technological revolution. Whether it was introduced by the outgoing or the incoming Government I do not know but, most importantly, it has stood the test of time.

Times change, of course, and one reason the construction industry has come to the Government to set the levy at this rate is the introduction of the general apprenticeship levy. That was an important issue for the CITB to communicate to its members, and the Minister has said that it did so effectively. As the CITB’s briefing reminds us, 99.7% of the construction industry comprises small and medium-sized enterprises, and they find it more difficult to train than larger employers. The Minister has gone through the details of the small employers who will be exempted. The exemption is not a token one; it is absolutely essential.

I have some questions for the Minister about what she said and its implications. Incidentally, I note that the CITB’s briefing mentions the challenges it faces, including productivity, future skills and the implications of Brexit. All I will say about that is that the Minister and I both represent relatively small towns, and it is in relatively small towns across the country that this issue will be a particular challenge, as I am sure she understands.

The levy process was informed by the Government’s Farmer review, which made clear the range of challenges—including structural fragmentation, low productivity, workforce size and demographics—that a reformed CITB is critical to addressing. On demographics, the Minister mentioned that money will be put aside for adults retraining in the construction industry. That is welcome, but I must voice a concern that has been raised with me in constituency surgeries and raised by other hon. Members in debates on the levy. Construction industry workers who may be in their 30s or 40s face great difficulties when they want to take on a new project, often with new technologies, only to find that their qualifications are not sufficient. It is not even a question of adding to their existing qualifications, but a question of having to go right back to square one. I raised that point a couple of years ago, although not with this Minister.

I hope the Minister will consider how to future-proof qualifications, which is very important given the process that will be necessary for implementing the standards in the new frameworks. I ask her to say a little more—if she cannot answer this evening, it would be helpful if she wrote to me—about how her Department, and indeed the Institute for Apprenticeships, will use the CITB’s strong in-depth knowledge to implement those standards.

Another important point made to me by the CITB about its construction training is that 24% of qualifications are acquired by people from deprived areas. The construction industry is one of the biggest employers of people from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds. That is welcome, but I remind the Minister of the cuts introduced a couple of years ago by the Government to 16-to-18 funding in disadvantaged areas. Her predecessor, the right hon. Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), stepped back from and revised some of those figures, but they are still a drag on the area, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) would tell us if he were here. It would be interesting to know how the Minister will monitor that issue in the context of the CITB.

I have discussed workforce demographics and push/pull factors for people in the construction sector, but I must also ask the Minister about the interface for promoting careers in the industry with the Careers and Enterprise Company, which of course is challenged in that area. Will she also say something about the impact of the levy not just on people who are employed directly, but on the supply chains? As we saw after the recent collapse of Carillion and the excellent work that was done by the industry to reassign apprentices, supply chains are critical in major areas and still need consideration.

Subject to those concerns, the Opposition are content for the draft order to be passed. We hope that it will have the effect that the Minister and the CITB hope for, but we also hope that her officials will keep a watchful eye to ensure that any problems that result from a lower rate of levy are addressed sooner rather than later.