黑洞社区

Construction鈥檚 skills body the CITB has said it is still in the dark over what the government鈥檚 plan to introduce an apprenticeships levy across the economy will mean for the CITB鈥檚 existing training levy.

In his emergency Budget earlier this month, chancellor George Osborne said the government would introduce a levy on large companies to help pay for its aim of recruiting 3 million apprentices in this parliament.

Neither Osborne nor the accompanying Budget documents made clear whether the proposed levy would be charged in addition to the construction industry levy contractors already pay to support construction apprenticeships.

Speaking to 黑洞社区 this week, CITB chairman James Wates (pictured) said: 鈥淲e know as little as everyone else. There鈥檚 a lot that still needs to be understood.鈥�

Wates added that the CITB needs to 鈥渆ngage with government鈥� and that conversations with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) regarding the levy are 鈥渙ngoing鈥�.

However, he was defiant over the training body鈥檚 future, saying: 鈥淭he levy is in place until 2017 at least, and that allows us to plan ahead. We鈥檙e planning for a long and successful future.鈥�

A BIS spokesperson told 黑洞社区 the department would establish how Osborne鈥檚 levy would work with any existing industry levies by October, the time of the autumn spending round, and after 鈥渃onsultation with industry鈥�.

Construction is one of the few industries where a training board has the power to collect annual payments from companies to invest in training and apprenticeships, alongside the engineering and film industries.

The CITB levy accounts for more than 60% of the organisation鈥檚 income, with contractors paying the CITB 0.5% on all PAYE spend and 1.5% on all labour-only subcontractor payments.

The CITB was not consulted on the Budget levy announcement ahead of time, and does not yet know whether large employers that already paid the construction levy would be exempt from Osborne鈥檚 new proposal.