Plans to merge two industry-led training quangos have been revived – a year after an independent review recommended the tie-up.
A 12-week consultation on merging the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) into a “single unified body” will be launched next month.
Both boards are non-departmental public bodies that hand out training grants for the construction and engineering workforces funded by levies on employers.
Work and pensions minister Andrew Western announced the consultation this week as he laid routine legislation to approve levy rates on employers that fund most of the CITB’s training activities.
Western said a single training board would “support the combined skills needs” of the sectors, delivering on a recommendation of an independent review by Mark Farmer which the government partially accepted in January 2025 “subject to further scoping”.
The minister added the views of industry “will inform a decision on how to proceed”, with the earliest likely change to be April next year.
The move comes after the CITB’s boss Tim Balcon was forced to apologise in December for cutting several training grants at short notice due to “the pace of demand growth”.
Government targets
Supply of skilled workers is seen as critical to the government’s manifesto pledge of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament, as well as major national infrastructure projects such as the ongoing Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.
Measures rolled out since the 2024 general election include a £600 million training package for up to 60,000 construction workers and a construction skills mission board that includes ministers and sector leaders.
However, while the government called on the two boards to collaborate following Farmer’s review, it held back from passing legislation needed to merge them.
The review called for a “fundamental reset” amid concerns about workforce shortages and future skills misalignment, arguing the two quangos had “insufficient” impact to justify their existence.
Farmer told FE Week he was pleased to hear about the consultation, as a merger would result in operational efficiencies and create a more “focused and strategic” workforce planning and development agency.
He added: “It is clear that in the current economic climate, industry will be even more sensitive to the need to deliver operational efficiencies from the ITBs and minimise levy ‘leakage’ for reinvestment in industry that delivers the biggest impact.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “This government inherited a dire shortage of construction workers and we are determined to deliver more opportunities for young people as we work to boost construction skills.
“We will be consulting industry on whether bringing these two training bodies together would better support workers and employers to get the skills they need.”
The two boards
Both the CITB and ECITB work in England, Scotland and Wales, distributing training grants that are largely funded through separate levies on employers.
CITB focuses on construction and building skills for sectors such as housebuilding, while the ECITB works on training for more specialised major infrastructure projects such as nuclear power stations, oil and gas production, and water treatment.
According to its most recent accounts for 2024-25, the construction board raised £228 million in levy funding for training grants to support more than 4,000 new entrants to the sector and 30,000 apprentices. It also runs employer networks and directly delivers apprenticeship and health and safety training.
The board’s most recent minutes from September said it forecast a budget deficit of £14 million for the year due to high demand for its grants.
In the same year, the ECITB raised £34 million from its levy, £28 million of which was spent on training grants and new-entrant programmes.
Andrew Hockey, CEO of the ECITB, said: “Whatever the outcome of this consultation, it is important the distinct skills and workforce needs of the engineering construction industry continue to be supported.
“Our research forecasts that the engineering construction industry will need 40,000 additional workers by 2030. Any changes to how the ITBs are structured should not detract from the urgent need to attract, develop, qualify and retain skilled workers now.”
CITB chief executive Tim Balcon said: “We must continue to work to tackle the joint needs of industry – we need to be providing standardised levels of competence, alternative routes into industry and making it easier to access high-quality training.”
More than 20 levy-funded boards were founded in the 1960s, but the CITB and ECITB are the sole two to remain after most were dismantled in reforms under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
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