Members may have seen over the last few months a lot spoken about “levelling up”, from politicians to business leaders, on the TV and in the newspapers. Levelling up is a big part of UK Government plans to spread growth and opportunity across the county, so much so they have rebranded a government department and have a Minister responsible for making sure it happens.
The Government has now set out its plans for what it all means, so let’s look at why levelling up is important for builders.
What role do builders have to play in all this?
FMB members across the UK build our much-needed new houses, improve existing homes, and offer high quality career opportunities for young people. Builders are at the heart of every single community and are key to making sure people can work locally, train locally and stay local, which helps to give every community a boost. That’s what levelling up is. And for it to be a success, we’re making sure the UK Government is listening to the needs of small builders – as our members will be vital to delivering levelling up.
A boost for housebuilders
Small, local house builders face many challenges when delivering new homes as outlined in our latest House Builders Survey. Levelling up is the perfect opportunity to reverse the decline in SME housebuilders, who are now delivering only 12% of our housing stock, down from 40% in the 1980s. Local housebuilders play an important role by developing under used land, creating community focussed projects and delivering a quality end product.
Improving the UK’s existing homes
The FMB has been championing the National Retrofit Strategy, so it's positive that the UK Government has including improving the quality and energy efficiency of our existing housing stock to the levelling up agenda. Local builders will be critical to the success of this policy, and we’ll be championing SMEs in this process – as it will be small, local builders that will deliver the improvements to the UK’s homes.
Skills firmly on the agenda
Levelling up’s ambition to create locally developed and led skills plans is much needed, and who better to lead the charge than builders. Small building companies train 71% of all construction apprentices and have a central role to play in training the next generation of tradespeople and offering highly skilled, highly profitable careers. Builders enable school leavers and others interested in joining the construction industry to train locally and help to boost their community and this is what levelling up is all about. As an industry we have a role to play in making sure being a builder is seen as a valuable career option and that’s something we can all work on to make sure levelling up is a success. Read more about our skills and training work on our campaign page.
If you want to know more about the FMB’s plans to help with levelling up, get in contact with [email protected].
