Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the survey conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, published in September, which stated that more than half of construction workers deem labour shortages to be a serious challenge.

The Government does take the issues around the supply of workers to the construction sector very seriously. We are working with industry - through the Construction Sector Deal - to deliver a step change in the productivity of the sector over the coming years, in particular, by increasing the use of digital and offsite manufacturing technologies. This will create new jobs and new skills requirements.

As part of the Sector Deal, we are committed to working with industry to implement the recent review of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). This will strengthen their governance, accountability and efficiency to better deliver critical skills needs across construction and related engineering industries. A £34m fund for construction skills was announced in the Budget, as part of the National Retraining Scheme. The fund will help to build construction training facilities attached to housing developments, and will support adult students to retrain as construction workers.