By the law under which it operates, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has to formally seek approval from the construction industry every three years to ensure that companies are still willing to pay a levy to fund industry-wide training initiatives.
It has been quite tight the past few times and presents a popular opportunity for CITB critics to say where it has been going wrong.
CITB said that its core focus for the proposals being shared in September is to ensure that the exemptions and reductions stay “current and appropriate”.
During the autumn consultation, CITB will host webinars to inform employers of the 2026-29 proposals and gather opinions. The feedback will be collated for the levy strategy committee – described as an independent group of industry representatives and external specialists – which will provide recommendations to the CITB board before it submits the final levy proposals to government. This is because CITB is legally obliged to demonstrate that it has representative agreement on the proposals from the employers who pay the levy.
CITB chief executive Tim Balcon said: “Reaching industry agreement on the levy through consensus is critical for British construction. CITB can only provide the skills system that the industry desperately needs with their input and support, so it’s important that we hear from employers and prescribed organisations to help shape our proposals. With the industry set to grow over the coming years, bolstered by a new government committed to getting Britain building again, ensuring our workforce has the skills and training required to take advantage of this opportunity is essential.
“We look forward to sharing our levy proposals with employers across the industry and gathering their feedback so that we can develop a robust roadmap providing high-quality apprenticeships and funded training to deliver the skills needed throughout the industry.”
Measuring consensus is a sample-based process, the CITB said, so there is no expectation that all levy payers will provide their views. However, the sample is designed to be representative of the levy paying population and of a large enough size to report reliable results.
All employers can have a say during the consultation from mid-September 2024. See www.citb.co.uk/levy-grants-and-funding/industry-consultation-consensus for details.
