Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the new Construction Leadership Council will assume the responsibilities previously held by the Chief Construction Adviser from November 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Membership and general terms of reference for the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) have been published on the Government website (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/construction-leadership-council).

Detailed terms of reference were drafted by the secretariat, discussed by the co-chairs and circulated to members, along with other papers for the October 2015 meeting.They will be published, along with the minutes, on the Government website in due course.

Under co-chairs myself and Andrew Wolstenholme, Chief Executive of Crossrail, the CLC has a number of work streams led by council members:

• Business models / supply chain - Madani Sow (Bouygues UK)
• Skills - Anna Stewart (Laing O’Rourke)
• Sustainability - Mike Putnam (Skanksa UK)
• Trade – David Cash (BDP)
• Communications – Simon Rawlinson (Arcadis).

Discussions on the lead for the innovation work stream are ongoing.

The Chief Construction Adviser role covered a range of functions which will be absorbed by Government and industry, including the CLC. In addition to identifying and delivering priority actions under the themes above, the Government will look to the CLC for advice on specific policy challenges - as is the case with the recently announced review of the practice of cash retention.