Industry quangos prepare for the worst

The future of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is on a knife edge as the government prepares to announce which quangos it will axe, reports Building magazine.

Sources indicate that the Cabinet Office, which is conducting the review, will announce the changes during the second half of next week.

The government’s design adviser is one of 177 bodies that is under threat of being scrapped, alongside the Homes and Communities Agency, the social housing delivery body.

Meanwhile, training organisation CITB-ConstructionSkills could be privatised under coalition plans to save billions of pounds as part of its austerity drive.

Sources close to Cabe told Building that the body could be abolished if last-minute decisions go against it. Even if it does survive, bosses are preparing for funding cuts of up to 50%.

One source told Building that a merger of Cabe with English Heritage, a move previously thought unlikely to be implemented, was back on the table. It also thought likely that the body could be asked to seek private sector finance for a number of its functions. For instance, it could charge developers for its design review services.

Meanwhile, directors at the HCA have told organisation it works with that changes to its role will likely result in a 50% cut in staff as its London operations are subsumed by the mayor’s agencies. On the other hand, it is understood the body will take charge of the economic regulation of social landlords when the Tenant Services Authority is scrapped.

CITB-ConstructionSkills could face privatisation under coalition plans, with fears that will mean the statutory training levy that funds the board and its training grants would become voluntary.

Nick Raynsford, former construction minister and Labour MP, warned: “There needs to be a serious amount of thinking about this because the CITB raises a statutory levy on the industry, but a privatised body could not make payment mandatory. Just privatising won’t work.”

The list, leaked to the Telegraph newspaper in late September, includes plans to privatise four bodies, merge or consolidate up to 129, and put 94 under review.