The Construction Industry Training Board is likely to raise the industry’s training levy, chairman Hugh Try told Building this week.

Try said the levy on directly employed labour would increase from 0.38% of direct employ payroll to 0.5%. He said: “We expect to get government approval by the end of the year and it should come into effect next March or April.”

Try said the levy was going up because the proportion of directly employed labour used by contractors was rising at the expense of labour-only subcontractors.

Key industry bodies, including the Construction Confederation and the National Federation of Builders, have agreed to the increase. The levy for labour-only subcontractors remains 2.28% of payroll.

  • The CITB’s on-site training and assessment programme has attracted more than 5000 workers in the first month, said Try. The initiative enables skilled workers to be assessed on site rather than in college.