BWF urges government to support CITB in Apprenticeship Levy Consultation

BWF has responded to government's call for views on a new Apprenticeship Levy for business, and urged it to support CITB.

A consultation from BIS looked for views on the introduction of an Apprenticeship levy that will be cross-sector, as a means to fill the budget deficit to fund the government’s ambition for 3m apprenticeship starts by 2020. For BWF members, this has potential impact for both small and large companies, and those that are both in or out of scope of CITB. ‘Large’ employers will be asked to pay an apprenticeship levy that will likely be collected by HMRC at a rate of 0.5% of a company’s PAYE bill, and they will be able to claim back in the form of vouchers to pay for FE delivery of apprenticeships. The standard definition of ‘Large’ firms has historically been 250+ employees, although models are being considered for the definition to be as low as 50 employees.

It also calls into doubt the continuation of the levy raised by CITB. This would have a significantly detrimental effect, therefore, on SMEs, who would loose all grant support for apprenticeships (and other training), as well as having to absorb the separate requirement by SMEs to pay a 1/3 of the FE training costs for apprenticeships. The additional support CITB provides to the industry, such as standards development, career promotion etc, would also be lost.

It was recognised that construction needs to speak with one voice on this issue and two meetings of construction industry federations have been convened, and memberships consulted, on what should be in an collective response. Build UK put together the collective response based on the feedback from federations on this matter and has been sent to government with signatories from allied organisations. BWF will has also submit a response to the consultation in line with this response, along with our own unique issues raised by members. All Board members have been circulated this response.

The key points from the response were:

•    CITB should be retained, with a significant review of operation
•    Employers should only have to pay one levy and their liability should not increase
•    CITB should operate a hybrid system – effectively an opt out – for the construction industry, so that is can continue provide apprenticeship training support along with its other functions. It is noted that this would still leave reduced funding in CITB’s ‘pot’ (at least £30m) for supporting industry, so a review would need to take place to look at how grants are administered and what activity is supported by CITB.

You can download the BWF's repsonse to the Apprenticeship Levy Consultation