Members of the Scottish Building Federation and the Scottish Decorators’ Federation have both voted overwhelmingly to reject the Construction Industry Training Board’s proposals to continue to raise the construction industry training levy.
The Construction Industry Training Board, or CITB was first established in 1964. Since this date the organisation has consulted industry every three years, exploring a range of future arrangements for the Construction Lev. Throughout the UK there are 14 organisations that are prescribed to respond to this construction process according to a consensus of their members’ views. The SBF and SDF are two of three wholly Scottish membership bodies that feature on the list of prescribed organisations.
The federations that are officially recognised as consensus federations had until the 29th of September in order to consult their members on the proposals that have been put forward by the CITB, and vote accordingly, reporting their feedback to the CITB. Over two thirds of the SBF members that responded to the consultation voted against the latest proposition, while 895 of those who responded from the SDF rejected the CITB offering.
Both SBF and SDF members pay a significant share of the construction levy contributions made in Scotland. The vote that has been made by their members has undermined the legitimacy of the current arrangements. However, despite this pessimistic vote, 94% of the companies that responded to the survey’s supplementary question said that they would be open to supporting a continuation of the current levy and a grant system if action were to be taken that would make the governance and operation of CITB more accountable to the Scottish levy payers.
The Managing Director of the Scottish Building Federation, Vaughan Hart has described the vote as a demonstration of a loss of confidence amongst Scottish building industry employers in the management of the CITB management of the levy, training and apprenticeships as opposed to a rejection of the levy grant system itself.
