Built Environment Sector Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business and Trade
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Main Page: Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Neville-Rolfe's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
Built Environment Sector
Baroness Neville-Rolfe Excerpts(2 days, 8 hours ago)
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Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
My noble friend is right to draw our attention to this area. Ensuring that we have the workers to support a clean energy transition is essential and she will know that, last week, the department put out a very detailed plan—I commend it to all noble Lords—to address the skills gaps we have in 31 priority occupations. The plan will create well-paid, secure jobs with good workplace rights. Noble Lords will also be aware that, in the last few weeks, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has also published a skills White Paper, which shows just how joined up these projects to create skills will be. It includes details of the technical excellence colleges, which will specialise in these areas.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)
My Lords, I too very much welcome the Minister to her seat. Much of the historic success of the built environment has depended on small and medium-sized businesses: developers, architects, housebuilders, plumbers, planners and so on. What will the Minister do to bring down the regulatory and other barriers to their continued and, I hope, growing success?
Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)
The noble Baroness makes another very important point. Over the past years, the nature of the construction market has changed and it is absolutely right to focus on small builders. There is a whole programme of support for SME builders, some of which is in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. It includes streamlined planning rules for small sites to reduce bureaucracy around those kinds of approvals and new reforms to ease biodiversity net gain requirements, again for small sites. We are also making efforts on late payments, which can be particularly difficult for small businesses in the construction industry. The consultation proposes a package of measures, including specific measures to address the use of retentions in the industry.