The government has thrown its weight behind the recommendations of the Farmer review in a response nine months after the report’s publication.
Farmer’s report, entitled Modernise or Die, was published in October 2016 and included recommendations for substantial reform of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and an accelerated drive towards greater use of offsite prefabrication.
In broad terms, ministers support all of Farmer’s recommendations except that “government should consider introducing a charge on business clients of the construction industry to further influence commissioning behaviour and to supplement funding for skills and innovation at a level commensurate with the size of the industry”.
In a joint response on behalf of the Department for Communities & Local Government and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, government ministers David Prior, Alok Sharma and Anne Milton say: “We support the continuation of the CITB, with reforms to make it more responsive and focused, and would encourage industry to support its continuation of the levy in the forthcoming consensus process.”
They add: “The CITB is now embarking on a major reform programme to reduce the size of the organisation and make it more focused on those aspects of the skills agenda where there is a clear market failure or where a collective approach to training can deliver real benefits to employers. Government supports the direction of these reforms, and we hope that the CLC will play an active role in supporting the CITB to see them through.”
Farmer was commissioned to to undertake a review of the UK construction labour model in response to concerns that productivity and capacity in the construction sector was undermining the delivery of new homes. The ministers say that the recent Housing White Paper covers issues related to “pre-manufacturing” and promotion of modern methods of construction.
“The government is determined to ensure more houses are built more quickly, while maintaining quality, and is keen to work with firms that can achieve these goals through innovative construction methods,” they say.
However, the ministers have rejected Mark Farmer’s call for the charge on clients – to be set at no more than 0.5% of construction value – who could not demonstrate how they are contributing to supporting skills development, pre-manufacturing facilities, or other forms of innovation and R&D.
The government’s challenge to industry to step up its spend on R&D and offsite manufacturing was also mirrored in recommendations made by a cross-party parliamentary group.
