Autumn Budget for 2017
Phillip Hammond announced the Autumn Budget for 2017 today, and it has some good news for the construction industry.
What will happen?
Construction output has been down in the second and third quarters of this year, reaching a drop of 0.9% in the third quarter. The construction industry is vital to our economy and so government have budgeted to improve our construction output. Their focus will be on training as, along with digital skills, there is a huge shortage in construction skills in the UK. There is also a push for the ‘adoption of modern methods of construction’. Not only will external training be a focus, but employer-designed training will also be an important factor in improving the construction industry and construction skills will now be the focus for the National Retraining Scheme.
What is to be invested?
The autumn budget for 2017 has budgeted an investment of £170 million to be invested into the construction sector. This investment is said to ‘transform productivity’ in the sector. This investment will be through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. From the £170 million, £34 million will be invested to ‘scale up innovated training models’, with £5 million alone being invested into training in the West Midlands.
All of our information has been taken from the online budget.
