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Construction: one of the big four to benefit from new government growth strategy

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11th December 2017

Greg Clark, Business Secretary, has published a new industrial strategy in which construction and other key industries will benefit from substantial government backing. The strategy is the flagship policy of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and aims to boost a flagging British economy.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded its growth forecasts for the UK economy, anticipating that the UK economy will grow by 1.4% in 2018, 1.3% in both 2019 and 2020, then by 1.5% and by 1.6% in 2022... which is very slow.

Mr Clark claims that Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future is the answer to Britain's burgeoning productivity 'weakness'.

The 131-page publication outlines increasing government spending on a number of key areas including R& D, the nationwide skills gap and a range of so-called Challenge Fund programmes. 

However, experts have said that the strategy lacks sufficient scope to deal with the existing skills and training gap in the UK, particularly following last week’s budget, which revealed a dismal productivity forecast.

A key measure of the strategy is a new National Retraining Scheme that supports people in developing the necessary skills, with a £64 million investment in digital and construction training, and a £406 million fund for maths, digital and technical education.

At the heart of the deal is the £170 million earmarked for the Transforming Construction challenge fund, announced in last week’s budget statement.

Head of Public Policy at the Chartered Institutue of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Ben Willmott, said the government was doing the right thing in setting the goal of creating a modern industrial strategy, but that its level of investment and ambition was inadequate, given the UK’s productivity challenge.

He said: "On skills, there is nothing in the strategy that addresses the UK’s chronic under-investment in adult skills and lifelong learning, with the focus mainly on education policy and the supply of skilled labour for the future in niche sectors.”

Mr Clark said: “The industrial strategy is an unashamedly ambitious vision for the future of our country, laying out how we tackle our productivity challenge, earn our way in the future, and improve living standards across the country.”

Managing Director at consultancy Accelerating Experience, Mike Taylor, said a focus on building technical skills among employees was much-needed but 'a glaring omission of commitment to solving the UK’s leadership crisis' was holding back the UK's performance.

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