Industry organisations respond to the Chancellor's announcement.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made a statement to the House of Commons, outlining the Government's spending programme for the coming months. 

In response, BMF CEO John Newcomb said: “The Chancellor was clear that the health emergency is not yet over and the economic emergency has only just begun. We must be prepared for a challenging year ahead, but there was some welcome news within his statement. 

“In particular, we welcome the £20 billion committed to underpin the Government’s long-term housing strategy, confirmation of capital investment to deliver the Government’s commitments on building 40 hospitals and rebuilding 500 schools over the next decade, and the multi-year funding required to deliver the Prime Minister's Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The latter includes a welcome 12 month extension for the Green Homes Grant, announced last week.

“However, we would have liked to hear the Chancellor go further and announce funding for a National Retrofit Strategy to turbo-charge the levelling-up of housing conditions throughout the country. Pump-priming this work would undoubtedly improve lives, create jobs, boost the economy as well as making greater inroads towards the Government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050.”

Steve Radley, CITB Policy Director, said: “The Chancellor’s commitment to a large increase in infrastructure spending next year and publication of the National Infrastructure Strategy give the construction industry greater confidence about the future work pipeline. It is now critical that the right skills and training interventions are put in place to help people benefit as a result of this investment and give the industry the skills it needs.

“A new route from FE into industry, through the expanded construction Traineeship, reform of the Apprenticeship Levy and the prioritisation of construction skills in the Government’s National Skills Fund and new Levelling Up Fund will be essential in doing this.”

On the subject of the Green Industrial Revolution, Mike Tattam, Lakes Sales & Marketing Director & BMBI Expert, had this said: 

“The Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution is a call to arms for individuals and organisations to fight for the future of our planet – we must do whatever it takes to protect our world, and we must do it now. 

“The climate emergency we are all facing requires nothing less than a revolution; a complete change in the way we live, work and do business. We fully support the Government’s radical ten point strategy and would echo the sentiments of the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF), that we are being ‘presented with an enormous opportunity to move towards a low or zero-carbon future’. We must grab that opportunity with both hands.

“While the Government’s Green Industrial Revolution strategy has few points which explicitly apply to the bathroom industry, we believe that the way the strategy is interpreted will give the sector plenty of scope to implement changes and make improvements”, says Mike.

“One of the key points in the Green Revolution plan relates to carbon capture to remove more than 10MT of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the next 10 years. More investment, research and development will be required before carbon capture at source is common place in our manufacturing facilities, but what we can do as an industry is take steps to significantly reduce our carbon emissions as much as we can while this new green tech is being developed.

“We as manufacturers have a sphere of influence and we can help get the whole bathroom supply chain to be more sustainable if we develop and implement strong, forward-thinking green policies ourselves.

“The time for talking has passed, it’s now time for action.”