CITB-ConstructionSkills, the industry's sector skills council, will have to wait another month to find out its fate after the government postponed a decision on its future.
The training body, along with the Commission for the Built Environment and Partnerships for Schools, is among 40 bodies whose future remains “under consideration”.
The Homes and Communities Agency will be retained but faces substantial reform to become a “smaller enabling and investment body working for local communities”. London functions will be devolved to the Mayor and it will be given a new role in the regulation of social housing.
The Health and Safety Executive also survives, but will be reformed and its expenditure scrutinised “in light of the spending review and Lord Young’s review of health and safety”.
A decision on the future of CITB-ConstructionSkills will be made in November.
Partnerships for Schools will be part of the Department for Education’s wider review of capital expenditure, due in December.
Other construction-related quangos affected are as follows:
- British Waterways will be turned into a charity.
- The BRB (Residuary), which owns around 4,000 old British Rail properties, will be wound up once its assets are disposed of.
- The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment’s future is still under consideration.
- The Commission for Integrated Transport will be abolished.
- The Design Council will be scrapped.
- The Infrastructure Planning Commission will be abolished and a major infrastructure planning unit created within the Planning Inspectorate.
- The Land Registry will remain but faces substantial reform.
- The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit will be scrapped.
- The Olympic Park Legacy Company will be scrapped and its functions devolved to the London Mayor.
- The Thurrock Development Corporation, the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, and the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation are being abolished, with their functions devolved to local government.
In all, 192 quangos are being scrapped, 118 will be merged, and another 171 will be substantially reformed. This means 380 bodies will survive
CITB-ConstructionSkills chief executive Mark Farrar said: “We welcome Government’s announcement today that they recognise the value of levies as a way of harnessing employer investment in skills and training, and the view that CITB-ConstructionSkills should have more flexibility and freedom to determine how best employer funds are invested – to help industry meets its challenges.
“We view this stance as a positive endorsement of the valuable work that we do to make sure that construction has the right skills in the right place at the right time, and of the important contribution our industry makes to UK plc.
“Our industry-led Board had started to look at the strategic options available to us before this announcement, and we look forward to working closely with Government to explore how these freedoms can be secured for the future to help us meet industry needs.”
Sign up to our FREE email newsletters or subscribe to our RSS feed for regular updates on the latest construction news, construction tenders, construction data, and construction law.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
