Select committee: Built Environment Committee
Conclusion 196
1st Report - Meeting housing demand
Published 10 Jan 2022
Built Environment Committee Meeting the UK’s housing demand All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
A lack of career progression in construction was raised as a major barrier to staff retention in the workforce. Table 5 shows how earnings tend to plateau for skilled construction and trades roles after 20 years in the industry. Table 5: Hourly salary rates for skilled construction and building trades Age range Median hourly rate* (£) 18–21 8.20 22–29 11.73 30–39 13.41 40–49 13.32 50–59 13.59 60+ 13.64 *The median hourly rate is likely to vary around the country. This table illustrates the tendency for earnings to plateau. Source: Written evidence from Construction Industry Training Board ( UKH0103 )
From: Built Environment Committee, 1st Report - Meeting housing demand, 10 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 10 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is "taking action on a number of the issues identified", agreeing with some recommendations while disagreeing with others, including on home ownership schemes and the Apprenticeship Levy.
- It "disagrees with the report's assessment that homeownership schemes do not provide good value for money", citing independent evaluations and its own evaluation of Help to Buy.
- On older people's housing, it is launching a new taskforce "this year", chaired by the Minister for Housing, to look at better choice, quality and security of housing.
- It does "not intend to set out a proportion" of Affordable Homes Programme funding for social housing, though "around half" of the affordable homes are to be for social and affordable rent.
- On the Apprenticeship Levy it says it has "no plans to review" it. On planning fees it is "exploring options" to increase them, and on local plans it will make an announcement "in due course".