Daventry MP, Chris Heaton-Harris, has pledged his support to a new partnership which will help to train, recruit and attract the people needed to build Britain’s homes.
The Home Building Skills Partnership, a joint initiative between the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and the Home Builders Federation (HBF), was officially launched at a House of Commons event in London last night.
The partnership will help attract new and experienced workers, provide construction businesses with ways to respond to their skills needs and develop new homebuilding training qualifications.
It comes as the Chancellor announced in the Autumn Statement today an investment of £3.7bn to help build 140,000 new homes.
Mr Heaton-Harris MP attended the event, organised by CITB, along with construction employers and apprentices. Speakers at the event included, Chair of the partnership, John Tutte, CITB Chief Executive, Adrian Belton, PPS to the Housing Minister, Rebecca Pow MP, and Shadow Housing Minister, Ruth Cadbury MP.
The Home Building Skills Partnership represents an investment of £3.8 million which, over the next four years, will:
- Train tens of thousands of new home building workers
- Upskill 1,000 experienced home building workers
- Support 3,500 construction businesses to identify and respond to their training needs
- In addition, a separate £1 million fund will provide non-trade graduate training, such as training for sales and marketing staff, across the home building sector.
Chris Heaton Harris MP said: “Getting good quality homes built is a crucial issue both in Daventry and across the country, but we need the skills to build them. That’s why I’m pleased to see CITB and the HBF working with industry to train people up so we can successfully meet the home building challenge.”
John Tutte, Chair of the Homebuilding Skills Partnership said: “The house building industry is totally committed to increasing output and meeting the housing needs of the country. The Partnership will help us attract and train the people we need to deliver more, high quality homes in the coming years.”
Adrian Belton, CITB Chief Executive, said: “We know that home building is a huge issue, both for the construction industry and for people looking to buy homes. We need many more workers in the sector to build more homes, and this partnership will help deliver that.
“We look forward to playing an active role in the partnership to create the skilled workforce that home building needs.”