The CIOB Policy Team Newsletter - October 2022
October with the CIOB Policy team
Welcome to this edition of CIOB’s policy team newsletter.
This edition includes a bumper overview of CIOB’s activity at both Conservative and Labour Party Conference. Alongside this, you can find a short overview of our response to the Irish Budget 2023 as well as some information about our speaking slot at Knowsley Construction Forum.
If you have anything you would like to share, we would love to hear from you, so please do get in touch at [email protected].
CIOB at Party Conference 2022
Over the course of September and October 2022, CIOB’s policy and public affairs team attended both Labour Party Conference (Liverpool – 25-28 September 2022) and Conservative Party Conference (Birmingham 2-5 October 2022).
This blog will take you through the various events, meetings and panels that the team attended or participated in at both Liverpool and Birmingham this year.
- Labour Party Conference
Labour Party Conference took place in Liverpool between 25 and 28 September as Leader, Keir Starmer, unveiled his vision to unite the party and outlined plans for domestic and foreign policy and development. Tackling the climate crisis was the standing item on the agenda, with the conference slogan advocating for “a fairer, greener Britain”.
The atmosphere amongst Labour delegates and activists appeared optimistic. There was a real sense of opportunity for party victory in the next general election after a significant and consistent lead in political polls in recent weeks after then Prime Minister, Liz Truss’ tax-cutting mini budget left the country gripped by economic turmoil. The subsequent U-turn on measures in the mini budget, certainly proved problematic for the then Conservative Government, and instilled further confidence in the Labour Party’s path to power.
In his hour-long keynote speech, Starmer vowed to create a publicly owned, renewable energy company within the first year of a Labour government "to cut bills, create jobs and deliver energy independence". This builds on previous commitments to make the UK a clean energy superpower by 2030, through a major expansion of wind and solar energy. The leader also pledged to solve the housing crisis, by increasing homeownership by up to seventy percent, radically reforming the private rented sector (PRS), and restoring social housing to the second largest form of tenure. As part of his sustainable housing and energy missions, Starmer promised to deliver a mass programme of domestic insultation, which would involve upgrading 19 million homes in decade. Other announcements included plans for a major overhaul of the skills and apprenticeship system, including giving businesses more flexibility to invest in training, and devolving adult education skills spending to combined authorities.
On 26 September, CIOB’s policy and public affairs team held two fringe events covering skills, levelling-up and sustainable development. Our first event was in partnership with Centre for Cities. The event entitled, “What does the UK’s skills gap mean for the ‘levelling up’ agenda?” brought together Toby Perkins MP, Shadow Minister for Skills & Education, Joanne Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, and Craig Battye, CIOB Trustee for a panel debate discussing the impact of the UK skills deficit on productivity in crucial sectors such as construction, and the role of skills policy in achieving levelling up.
Our second event, was in partnership with organisations which represent the built environment, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). The event, entitled, “What does sustainable development look like?”, brought together Paul Dennett, Salford City Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Rebecca Long Bailey MP, and Chair of the Key Cities All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), and representatives from the Joint Institutes, for a panel discussion on how to make sustainable development and living more accessible and affordable for all.
On 27 September, CIOB’s policy and public affairs officer for the North, also participated in the Institute for Government’s (IfG) private roundtable on the role of skills in reducing regional inequality. The roundtable brought together politicians in central and local government, employers, education providers and policy experts to discuss the skills and employment challenges and opportunities facing the country, and the role for different levels of government in supporting the development of future skills.
The team also attended several fringe events and discussions, including the National House Building Council (NHBC) and L&Q Homes’ panel debate with Andy Burnham, Mayor of GMCA to discuss how the housing sector can support the levelling up agenda. Separately, the team also attended a Co-Op Group hosted panel featuring Alex Norris MP, the Shadow Minister for Levelling Up, Future of the Union and Elections, which focused on the structural and societal issues that cause many young people to leave their ‘left-behind’ hometowns to progress. This is something that we believe that careers in construction can prevent, whether it is through instilling a pride in local place or offering alternatives to higher level education at the outset.
- Conservative Party Conference
CIOB’s policy and public affairs team also travelled to Birmingham to attend the Conservative Party Annual Conference. The much-anticipated conference had a tense atmosphere in the three days that CIOB attended as government U-turns on budget commitments as well as the then recent leadership contest did more to split the party’s membership than unite. This tension was typified by rumours that both the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng and former Prime Minister, Liz Truss, would not be addressing the members directly amongst calls for further resignations, although this turned out to just be a rumour in the end.
During her address to the audience, the then Prime Minister, did commit to making it easier to build homes in the UK. But outside of this and a further commitment to create new ‘investment zones’ to drive forward levelling up, there was not much to for the built environment, which of course is disappointing to see. Especially given the prevalence of specific policy measures within Labour Leader, Keir Starmer’s speech at Labour Party Conference, most notably the mass programme for domestic insultation.
Throughout the three days that CIOB attended Conservative Party Conference we hosted two fringe events and participated in one roundtable. The first of the events titled 'Increasing skills, decreasing bills: How retrofitting can help both levelling up and the cost of living?' hosted in partnership with the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, centred around the need to implement a far reaching, national retrofitting strategy in order to help solve many of the current issues facing the construction sector. During the session, CIOB’s Senior Vice President, Sandi Rhys Jones OBE highlighted that industry, with support from government, need to fix the “large number of homes we have got” and make them “fit for purpose”, rather than build new homes in isolation. Throughout the session all four participants, including Minister for Local Government and Building Safety, Paul Scully MP highlighted the importance of addressing the energy efficiency of the whole home in order to drive down energy bills to address the current cost of living crisis, create locally based job opportunities to address the current skills shortage and encourage carbon neutrality to meet the UK’s legal binding carbon neutrality targets.
At the same time, CIOB’s Director of Policy, External Affairs & Research, Eddie Tuttle attended a private roundtable hosted by IfG on how skills policy can help reduce regional inequality. The roundtable was a fantastic opportunity for CIOB to continue to push government for tangible solutions to reduce the current skills gap while using the opportunity of levelling up to bridge the unequal regional gaps.
The final event that CIOB hosted was in partnership with RICS, RIBA and RTPI, titled 'Levelling Up: building better?'. The event was also attended by Chair of the Regeneration and Development All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Gagan Mohindra MP and the Chair of the Housing and Planning APPG, David Simmonds MP. During the event, each participant raised their own points on the importance of the levelling up agenda and the role of the built environment within it. From a CIOB perspective Sandi Rhys Jones raised the important point that this is not the first time that we have talked about ‘levelling up’. So, the question from the perspective of the built environment is, how is this agenda different and how will government work with the construction sector to ensure that the ambitions of levelling up are realised?
Outside of our own events the team attended several other fringe events including The Great Housing Debate: how do we increase housebuilding and homeownership, hosted by ConservativeHome and NHBC, the Centre for Cities, Welcome to Birmingham Reception, the Natwest SME Taskforce Reception and the Sovereign Housing Association and Walsall Housing Group Housing Fringe: How housing can level up our communities.
Despite an atmosphere of uncertainty and tension amongst attendees and speakers in the wake of a tumultuous first few weeks for the then Prime Minister and her team, Conservative Party Conference 2022 provide an excellent opportunity to catch up with contacts, build new connections and learn more about what our colleagues across the built environment are doing to campaign for change.
In Other News
- CIOB speaks at the Knowsley Construction Forum
CIOB’s Merseyside and Cheshire Hub recently partnered with Knowsley Chamber of Commerce and participated in their Construction Forum on October 25, 2022. This was a fantastic opportunity for CIOB, and representatives of the region’s construction and development sectors to get together and learn more about Knowsley and the city regions developments, as well as supply chain opportunities and challenges.
During the Forum, Dale Milburn, Executive Director for Regeneration and Economic Development at Knowsley Council, provided an update on developments underway, both residential and commercial, and projects that are emerging. This includes large-scale projects such as the recently completed Shakespeare North Playhouse, and the ongoing regeneration of Kirkby and Prescot Town Centres, which are already helping to boost Knowsley’s business, leisure, and housing offer. Dale also discussed the economic challenges which are having a detrimental impact on key developments. The Council have recently been forced to ‘indefinitely pause’ the Kirkby Cinema project, due to the rising construction costs, with inflation at the highest in 40 years, and the negative impact of stop-start policy making.
Knowsley Council is not the only one being forced to halt projects. Across the entire built environment, rising costs of energy, materials, and skills shortages, have impacted significantly on projects, and are providing a huge challenge for contractors, clients, and all other stakeholders. CIOB recognise that these underlying issues are holding the construction industry back. We believe intervention is needed at a government level, to provide industry with the support it needs, including a steady pipeline of work through investment of new public work, alongside immediate and long-term strategies, to recruit, retain, and progress workers.
During the Forum, CIOB’s Policy and Public Affairs Officer for the North, Tallulah Eyres, also had the opportunity to provide an update of our recent work on the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, and the opportunities it presents to address the construction skills deficit, and regional inequality. CIOB believe that to genuinely bridge the gaps between education, employment, and skills, a tailored-based approach is necessary, as often, local leaders, and combined authorities have a better grasp of the skills requirements in their areas. We therefore support further devolution powers, and fiscal flexibility, so that local leaders can not only co-design and deliver the national curriculum, but also, build on local potential, so that the regions and nations of the UK benefit from equal access to skills and training.
By attending the forum, CIOB gained insight into the grass roots conversations, which will help formulate future cooperation. As part of this partnership, our Policy and Public Affairs Officer for the region will be joining the Chamber’s Local Skills Improvement Board, which aims to build a stronger and more dynamic partnerships between employers, training providers, and other key stakeholders, to help ensure post-16 technical education and training is more closely aligned to local employer and labour market needs. CIOB look forward to supporting the design and delivery of new approaches to cultivate a place-based support for skills development in Knowsley and beyond.
- CIOB Ireland responds to Budget 2023
The CIOB has responded to Ireland’s Budget 2023 package announced yesterday, Tuesday 27 September 2022. The package includes €85.9 billion for core expenditure and €4.5 billion in non-core expenditure to address externally driven temporary challenges. You can read the full response here.
Regional Overviews
- Scotland
It has been a busy month in Scotland. We continue to have positive meetings and cross-party support from MSPs regarding our recent report Levelling the Playing Field, not Scotland’s Built Environment. Further meetings are scheduled for next month. We also launched our monthly column in Scottish Construction Now magazine. This month’s edition, written by Policy & Public Affairs Officer, Jocelyne Fleming, outlined CIOB’s policy priorities for Scotland.
We also submitted a response to the Scottish Government’s New Build Heat Standard II consultation. Our response outlined our support for the decarbonisation of Scotland’s heat but highlighted several concerns and barriers that must be addressed to avoid unintended negative consequences for industry, households and businesses as a result of the proposed legislation. You can review our full response here.
- Wales
In Wales, CIOB was recently asked to give further evidence on the decarbonisation of the private housing sector to the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee. Gordon Brown MCIOB, Chair of the Cymru Member Hub, gave evidence on our behalf, talking about the need for a retrofit programme to decarbonise the Welsh housing market. You can catch up on the evidence session here, and click on Session 4 to watch our contribution.
October also saw CIOB’s first attendance at the Housing Cross Party Group, where planning reforms were up for discussion. Built Environment Alliance Cymru (BEAC), of which CIOB is a member, also held an event on active travel delivery in Wales, with key input from Members of Senedd and the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS.
CIOB and the Press
Influential political magazine, Politics Home, attended and wrote about our retrofit event at the Conservative Party Conference. The online article was viewed by more than 2,700 readers, which is above average for the site. We also know the average time readers spent on our article was just under six minutes, almost double the average for articles on Politics Home. This shows the subject matter is clearly of interest to readers of the publication, who include MPs, peers and their teams. The Politics Home social media posts linking to the article were seen by more than 38,000 users with just over 10% liking, sharing, commenting or clicking through to the full article. You can read it here Why retrofitting is a “no brainer” for the Government this winter (politicshome.com).
Coming up in November
In the last edition of the policy and public affairs newsletter we welcomed Liz Truss MP’s new government and set out CIOB’s asks for the next policy agenda. Well since then it's fair to say that there has been a lot of change from a political perspective. We now have a new Government under the leadership of Rishi Sunak MP. You can read our statement on the matter here.
With that in mind, November is likely to once again be a month of ‘settling in’ as the new Government untangles the web of economic incentives set out in the previous mini budget. Therefore, it is likely to be a relatively quiet month for the construction industry in policy terms as new ministers get acclimatised with their portfolios.
However, there are a few things already in the parliamentary calendar to look out for. Firstly, we will see our second meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Committee who will hear further oral evidence on their inquiry into the Boiler Upgrade Scheme that was announced earlier in 2022. Alongside this, a new inquiry will be launched by the Public Accounts Committee into the creation of the UK Infrastructure Bank on the back of the UK Infrastructure Bank Bill which is currently making its way through the House of Lords.
One interesting item to keep an eye on will be the private members bill which is being brought forward by Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew on the carbon emissions of buildings. The bill will have its second reading in the House of Commons on 25 November.
In other business the Economic Affairs Committee will continue to meet to debate the current issues relating to the supply of labour in the UK.
Staying in Touch
Thank you for reading this month’s update from the CIOB policy team. We will be back in your inbox next month with more information about what the team is up to, what is going on in Parliament and built environment news to look out for.
All the best,
The CIOB policy team
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