Get your skates on to tackle construction skills shortage, government told

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the House Builders Federation have accused the government of dragging its feet over proposals to set up a national centre for construction training by January 2005.

The ODPM has accepted the idea but a funding decision is not due until next month.

The national centre was mooted in Sir John Egan’s report on the skills needed to deliver sustainable communities, published in April.

Egan’s research also concluded that there was a dearth of workers skilled enough to “oversee the construction of large, sustainable communities”.

Neil Johnson, senior parliamentary and policy officer for the RICS, said: “We need to be putting meat on the bones, but the government is still not focused on the practical details for implementing action on the ground.

“We’re worried we are going to end up with homogeneous housing estates, not sustainable communities.”

HBF spokesman Piers Williams added: “It’s all very well talking about setting up a centre, but we need to know how it will operate and deliver.”

The government issued its response to the Egan skills report last week. Deputy prime minister John Prescott said Whitehall was committed to increasing training opportunities for a range of jobs in order to deliver sustainable communities.

“We are taking plans forward for a national centre,” he said. “It will play a vital role in bringing about the necessary changes in attitudes, behaviour and knowledge.”

• The ODPM announced last Friday that the next design coding pilot project will take place in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Design codes are guidelines for features such as road layout and window height to harmonise the look of developments. They have proved popular with government but not with architects.