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Last edited 05 Aug 2024

Industry reacts to first labour government King's speech in fifteen years

1 Electrical Contractors Association
2 Chartered Institute of Building
3 Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists
4 Royal Institute of Britich Architects
5 National Federation of Builders
6 Home Builders Federation
7 National Housing Federation
8 Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
9 Open letter from the National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, National Federation of ALMOs, The Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and numerous City Councils.
10 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Electrical Contractors Association

The Electrical Contractors Association has praised the King’s Speech for focusing on energy security and growth. The trade body also emphasised the role of the electrotechnical and engineering services sector in delivering both.

The ECA, which represents nearly 3,000 businesses and over 60,000 employees in the UK’s electrical and engineering services sector, has also welcomed the creation of Skills England, a new governance body for post-16 skills and training.

A sector-wide survey carried out by ECA in early 2024 showed that electrotechnical businesses have been held back by slow growth, caused in part by a shortage of adequately skilled workers.

ECA Chief Operating Officer Andrew Eldred commented:

“We expect our Members, and the wider sector, will welcome the new government’s early emphasis on energy, transport, and housing.

“However, a competent, sustainable skills base is the foundation for delivering growth in these areas, and meeting Net Zero targets.

“We urge the new government to make sure Skills England is an agile body that can move at pace. It must also be a body that listens and understands the needs of employers in the electrotechnical sector.”

ECA has long called for more investment in green energy. The association hopes that the introduction of GB Energy will speed up the country’s transition to clean electrification. With the CCC recently announcing we are no longer on track to reach its Net Zero targets by 2030, rapid electrification is the safest and quickest way to get back on course.

ECA works closely with its Members, industry partners and Government to raise awareness of the role of electrical contractors in the transition to Net Zero Carbon. Learn more here.

This section appears on the ECA news and blog site as 'ECA welcomes King’s Speech' dated July 22, 2024.

[edit] Chartered Institute of Building

Caroline Gumble, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), said on LinkedIn that unless the skills gap is urgently addressed, it will only get worse.

“Housebuilding and construction were front and centre in the speech, with the phrase ‘get Britain building’ heard in the first minute or so,” said Gumble. “However, there’s a lack of detail on support for the breadth of the industry so it can fully contribute to delivering more homes – and an important element should be a focus on closing the skills and people gap in construction.

“As covered in our manifesto, the skills gap is persistent and likely to grow without meaningful intervention. The government’s priorities, as outlined today [17 July], are most likely to be delivered successfully if we recruit more people into this important industry, in which we can offer interesting, purpose-driven and long-term careers.

"It was heartening, however, to hear ‘high quality’ as a specific requirement in the delivery of houses and infrastructure. Quality and safety and tackling the skills gap have been CIOB priorities for some time and we look forward to working with policymakers, parliamentarians and our sister professional bodies to support the sector and deliver the high-quality built environment that benefits us all.”

This section appears on the CIOB Construction Management website as 'King’s Speech: ‘lack of detail’ on skills support' dated July 18, 2024.

[edit] Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists

CIAT’s view on the Labour Government’s policies and priorities

During the new Labour Government’s first King’s speech on Wednesday 17 July, Sir Keir Starmer promised they would “fix the foundations” of the country, boosting the economy with the introduction of new housing and planning laws, along with plans for green energy, increased local powers, and further rights for renters and homeowners. “Today’s new laws will take back control and lay the foundations of real change that this country is crying out for,” Starmer said, but do his cabinet’s plans reflect these ambitions? And will these changes be good for Chartered Architectural Technologists and other built environment professionals?

Starmer’s commitment to building 1.5 million homes in five years has been much publicised, with the Prime Minister repeatedly stating his Government will be “builders, not blockers.” The proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill, announced on Wednesday, will “turbocharge building of houses and infrastructure”, according to the Government. It will put more power into the hands of local planning authorities and update planning policy to accelerate and improve decision-making.

The Bill also tackles issues such as nature recovery, boosting renewable energy and upgrading the national grid, all of which are core aspects of Architectural Technology.

Perhaps most notably, the King’s speech established both Labour’s Great British Energy Bill and its Warm Homes Plan. The former establishes a publicly owned energy company in an attempt to cut energy bills and create jobs, but stops short of establishing long-term goals for the country to reduce its energy consumption to net zero. The Warm Homes Plan offers grants and “low interest loans” for five million homes to support investment in insulation, solar panels, batteries and low carbon heating. They ensure that their plans mean homes in the private rented sector will meet minimum efficiency standards by 2030, and that there will be “good skilled jobs for tradespeople in every part of the country.”

There was, however, no detailed breakdown in the speech of how the Government might tackle the affordable housing crisis or increase the social housing provision, or, irrespective of unblocking the planning system, who exactly is going to build the 1.5 million homes promised, considering the current major skills shortage in the built environment sector. Nor did the Government recognise that the Warm Homes Plan will only work with a substantial increase in both trained assessors and installers.

That said, we welcome the proposed Skills England Bill, which would see a body of employers, education/training providers and unions assess current and future skills needs across England, and the Institute urges the Government to recognise the critical need for more skilled professionals in the built environment sector.

A core principle of the new Government is an increased focus on empowering and growing local communities. Through the English Devolution Bill, the government will grant local leaders the ability to make decisions over strategic planning, produce Local Growth Plans, and more. Empty community spaces will be given the chance to be reestablished by their own communities through a right-to-buy scheme, which aims to help struggling high streets and town centres. This allows communities to cater to their own needs, and if done correctly could lead to a welcome surplus of interesting, bespoke and characterful spaces across the country.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has admirable aims to build new homes and commit to green energy that would position Chartered Architectural Technologists as invaluable in boosting the built environment sector and the economy generally. CIAT fully supports the Government’s commitment to fix the nation’s foundations through increased emphasis on housing, planning and sustainability, and reiterates the need to boldly commit and develop these bills and policies over the next five years.

This section appears on the CIAT news and blogsite as 'King’s speech 2024', dated July 19, 2024.

[edit] Royal Institute of Britich Architects

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki said:

“The Government has set out an ambitious parliamentary agenda – now, we need action.

"Delivering high-quality, sustainable buildings and places will be at the heart of growing the economy. So, commitments to overhaul the planning system and strengthen the capacity of local planning authorities through the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill are welcome."

"Plans for Great British Energy to cut bills and tackle the rising cost of living are also encouraging, but they must be accompanied by measures to reduce energy use in our homes, through a National Retrofit Strategy."

"We look forward to working with the Government to help deliver on these pledges – harnessing the knowledge, expertise, and experience of architects to create a better future for all.”

This section appears on the RIBA news and blogsite as 'RIBA responds to the King’s Speech 2024' dated July 17, 2024.

[edit] National Federation of Builders

Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The NFB has been lobbying for apprenticeship levy reform for some time, so we are delighted the King’s Speech agrees with our recommendation.

“We hope to also help the government recognise that their planning reforms are vital to ensure Skills England meets its ambition. In construction, 90% of training capacity is delivered by SMEs, who also train seven in 10 apprentices. Yet smaller builders only build 9% of homes and the largest contractors (tier 1) dominate the procurement process.

“Without ensuring planning and procurement reform enables SMEs, the nation’s main trainers and retainers, workers will not have sustainable, local employment opportunities and Skills England will not be able to deliver its imperative ambitions.”

[edit] Home Builders Federation

Following the speech, Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “The ambition on housing delivery and policy proposals put forward to deliver them are positive and welcome. Planning has been the biggest constraint on house building in recent years and the measures proposed will address the main areas of concern by bringing more land forward for development more quickly.

“Housing delivery has a range of determinants and will require a number of policy areas are addressed. Moves to unblock the planning system are a huge step forward but we will also need to see moves to help increase mortgage availability, especially for young people, if we are to get to the levels Government is aiming to deliver.

“Building the homes the country needs will address the social issues our housing crisis is creating, provide young people with access to decent housing, whilst creating tens of thousands of jobs and boosting investment in communities in every area of the country.”

This section appears on the Home Builders Federation website as 'HBF supports Government’s steps to unblock planning system in King’s Speech' dated July 17, 2024.

[edit] National Housing Federation

In response to the King's Speech today, Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation said:

Today’s King’s Speech sets out some important and welcome first steps towards tackling the housing crisis and increasing the delivery of desperately needed affordable and social homes.

We look forward to working closely with the government to ensure that a revitalised planning system delivers the number and types of affordable homes the country needs. We’re also pleased to see the government commit to abolishing Section 21 no fault evictions to provide private renters with greater security and protect those on low incomes from the risk of homelessness.

With the housing crisis effecting people right across the country, we fully support the government’s ambition of building 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament, but this will not be possible through planning reform alone and will need to be met with the right funding. We will continue to make the case for these changes to form part of a nationally coordinated and fully funded long-term plan for housing which places social housing at its core. Housing associations stand ready to support the government on this to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.

This section appears on the National Housing Federation website as 'NHF response to the King's Speech 2024' dated July 17, 2024.

[edit] Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

Tina Paillet FRICS, President of RICS responded to the King’s Speech saying:

“It’s welcome that planning reforms sat at the heart of the 35 draft bills read out by King Charles today. Both housing and infrastructure are huge economic enablers; numerous studies have identified the positive correlation between GDP growth and infrastructure delivery.

“Today’s King’s Speech is yet another step in the right direction from Labour policymakers, who have pledged to “take the brakes off Britain” by introducing an ambitious legislative agenda which will get the UK building again, improve living standards, and help deliver the infrastructure to power a net-zero economy. The actions across these will need to be linked to ensure success, and as RICS professionals work across all these agendas, they will collectively provide expertise needed to progress these missions.

“The Skills England bill, which mirrors our calls for the creation of a cross-department skills taskforce responsible for identifying gaps and opportunities in the workforce, is also encouraging. Policymakers must address the skills shortage and support industry work in solving this issue, otherwise the UK will be unable to deliver on its 1.5 million homes a year target and £805 billion infrastructure pipeline.

“Underlining the need for holistic built environment policy, while we welcome the Renters Rights Bill to support tenants and drive-up standards, government needs to work with landlords to address affordability and supply. Our survey has already shown prices being pushed up due to lack of rental homes”.

This section appears on the RICS news and insite as 'King’s Speech 2024 shows the built and natural environment centre of government’s plan' dated July, 17, 2024.

[edit] Open letter from the National Housing Federation, Chartered Institute of Housing, National Federation of ALMOs, The Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) and numerous City Councils.

Rt Hon. Angela Rayner MP

Deputy Prime Minster and Secretary for State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

Dear Angela,

Meeting request – social housing financing and capacity

Congratulations on your appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

We look forward to working with a Secretary of State with a longstanding and personal commitment to social housing. In opposition, you spoke about the transformative effect of growing up in affordable, safe housing. We share your passion for social housing and determination to end the housing crisis.

As councils, housing associations and social housing professionals we stand ready to work in close partnership with you to deliver the biggest boost to social housing in a generation. Given the scale of financial pressures impacting the sector, delivering this will not be possible without urgent government intervention. It was therefore welcome to see this acknowledged in Labour’s manifesto commitment to support councils and housing associations to rebuild their capacity.

We are writing today as an unprecedented coalition of social housing providers and practitioners, to outline practical next steps to rebuild the capacity and confidence of the social housing sector. Given the scale and impact of this crisis, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further in an urgent roundtable meeting.

Capped income, crippling cuts, unfunded new requirements and soaring costs have decimated housing association and council’s housing budgets. Rental income is 15% lower in real terms than in 2015, at the same time as we need to invest up to £50k on average in every social home over the next three decades to ensure they are safe, high quality and decarbonised. Without action, councils will face a £2.2bn black hole in their housing budgets by 2028. And reflecting these financial pressures housing association starts on site of new homes were 30% down last year compared to the year before, with further falls expected this year.

After years of policy uncertainty and underfunding, we want to establish a long-term and collaborative relationship with our new government, working together to bring all our existing homes up to a modern, decent and green standard, and ensure we’re on track to build desperately needed new homes.

The largest local authority landlords in England have just published their five solutions to secure the future of council housing, the National Housing Federation has set out its social housing renewal plan, the Chartered Institute of Housing has released its 10 point housing plan and the Local Government Association’s Local Government White Paper includes its plan for social housing. We are all united on the need for urgent action, which must include long-term income certainty, an immediate boost to existing grant programmes, and fairer access to building safety funding.

At the next spending review, we need a long-term plan for new and existing social homes, underpinned by a fair and sustainable financial model developed alongside councils and housing associations.

Without this, we will not be able deliver our shared ambition to build 1.5 million new homes this parliament. New build projects are already being delayed and cancelled across the country due to significant financial pressures and uncertainty.

We look forward to discussing our shared challenges and recommendations with you and working together on an ambitious long-term plan to rebuild our capacity, boost growth and solve the housing crisis.

Yours sincerely,

This open letter appears on the National Housing Federation website as 'Our open letter to the Secretary of State of Housing, Communities and Local Government' dated July 12, 2024.