Industry Priorities for New Labour Government

After being confirmed as the country’s new Prime Minister last week, Sir Keir Starmer has now appointed his cabinet to start delivering the pledges he made in the Labour Party manifesto. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, used her first speech on Monday to set out how she would ‘get Britain building again’ as part of the Government’s ‘mission to kickstart economic growth’. Her focus is on planning reform and “tak[ing] the urgent steps necessary to build the infrastructure that we need, including one and a half million homes over the next five years”. These steps include restoring mandatory housebuilding targets, creating a new taskforce to accelerate stalled housing sites, and reforming the national planning policy framework.

Throughout the election, the new Government has identified the importance of construction to delivering its missions, and Sarah Jones MP, who has been appointed Minister of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the Department for Business and Trade, will have responsibility for construction. Build UK Chief Executive Suzannah Nichol OBE has shared their ‘5 Ps to Power Up Construction’ in Construction News, setting out how agreeing and funding a national infrastructure plan for the next 10 years, with a responsible owner within the Treasury accountable for its delivery, will help Labour realise its ‘national mission’ of sustained economic growth. 

With the new Government now in power, the need for a clear and consistent voice from the construction and fencing sectors has never been more important. 

 

Transforming Construction

As well as representing the construction sector, Build UK with AFI support continues to drive change across the industry. By adopting and developing the systems currently in place, the whole supply change can focus on doing whatever it is they do in the most efficient way to deliver high quality, safe buildings and infrastructure. This year, Build UK along with the AFI have:

• Published Version 4 of the Common Assessment Standard, which includes a new Building Safety section, ensuring it can now be used to demonstrate companies have the organisational capability to fulfil their duties under the Building Safety Act.
• Kept members up to date on the requirements of the new building safety regime by holding Building Safety calls every six weeks, regularly updating the Build UK guide and other guidance, and publishing our Building Safety update.
• Worked with Government on the extension of the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations, and the new metrics, which will be introduced from 1 January 2025, will enable us to present an even more comprehensive picture of payment practices within the industry.
• Focussed on the management of risk through the supply chain, and the new JCT 2024 contracts include a number of amendments in response to the Build UK recommendation on contract terms. We will shortly be publishing an updated version of our guidance on implementing the recommendation with updated advice for JCT contracts.
• Delivered Open Doors 2024, which saw over 5,000 potential new entrants go behind the scenes of sites and workplaces across Great Britain, as we brought the whole supply chain together to showcase careers in construction. Look out for the Build UK Countdown to #OpenDoors25 next week!
• Led the updating of the CLC recommendation on Industry Card Schemes to reflect the increased focus on competence. We are now helping to roll out CSCS Smart Check to verify that workers hold the correct card for their occupation and supporting members ahead of the withdrawal of Industry Accreditation.

A huge thank you to all our members for your continued support; we have a central role to play in powering up construction and fencing in the second half of the year.