黑洞社区

The CITB has outlined out how some of the money it collects through its annual levy has been spent, a week after Balfour Beatty boss Leo Quinn said the organisation did not provide enough information on its grants and issued a call for it to be scrapped.

As the clamour for the training body to be reformed from housebuilders to contractors intensified last week, the CITB 鈥� which recently named Sarah Beale as its new chief executive 鈥� said in its that 303 projects in England, Scotland and Wales had benefitted from funding of 拢17.8m between September 2015 and December 2016.

Micro and small firms made up the majority (231) of those receiving funds, followed by construction federations (38), large employers (18), CITB-funded training groups (9), medium-sized employers (6) and one trade union.

Steve Radley, the CITB鈥檚 director of policy, said: 鈥淭his report shares key findings on how levy payers鈥� money is having a positive impact on our industry, including on many small firms.

鈥淚t shows that CITB funding helps people gain qualifications; reduce skills gaps and improves staff morale. For employers it has encouraged innovation and facilitated new partnerships, as well as improving perceptions of construction as a career.

鈥淲e will continue to work closely with our industry to ensure that funding is targeted at its priorities and delivers the outcomes it needs.鈥�

Meanwhile the future of the CITB is the subject of intense speculation, with a number of groups and individuals levying criticism and questioning its fitness for purpose.

The Construction Leadership Council weighed in, last week calling for the CITB to be 鈥渕uch more strategic, industry-led and accountable鈥�, while Balfour鈥檚 Quinn went further and raised questions about its future, arguing that the lack of detail around what happened to the 拢200m raised annually through its levy was 鈥渢ruly concerning鈥�.

Trade union Unite also took aim at the training body, with assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail warning that while the industry would be worse off without it but that 鈥渋t needs to be radically reformed if it is going to be able to cope with the challenges that the industry faces in the coming years鈥�.

Continued government support for the CITB also hinges on its ability to enact reforms that will satisfy stakeholders across the board.

The CITB is facing its triennial consensus, where 14 trade bodies and 6,000 non-affiliated construction companies vote on whether the organisation can continue collecting the training levy from them. Voting ends on 29 September, with an announcement on the outcome in November.

In a column this week for 黑洞社区, CITB chairman James Wates will say the government鈥檚 鈥渉elpful鈥� confirmation of its support for the training body following the publication of last autumn鈥檚 Farmer Review should be noted by the wider industry and adds: 鈥淭hey encouraged the industry to support the continuation of the levy in the upcoming consensus process.鈥�