Business, Innovation and Skills written question – answered at on 3 September 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent steps he has taken to support the construction industry in Peterborough; and if he will make a statement.
The Government are actively working to help all construction firms including those in Peterborough.
Returning the UK to sustainable and balanced growth is a key priority for the Government and construction has a central role to play in this. Working closely with the construction industry, we are therefore:
Removing barriers to growth—by tackling the planning system, the burden of regulation and access to finance. The Government is also looking at a number of other issues which may constrain the industry's ability to respond to future growth such as skills.
Stimulating infrastructure development and improvement—The National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) sets out the overarching view of our forthcoming infrastructure needs. It contains major spending commitments to improve our transport and broadband networks as well as steps to attract major new private sector investment. It has identified a pipeline of over 500 projects, including the top 40 priority infrastructure investments that are critical for growth.
Ensuring Government plays a full role as a key customer of the industry. The Public Sector accounts for about 30% of the construction industry's output with another 10% accounted for by private finance initiative/public and private partnerships.
Looking for new opportunities and identifying how they can best be exploited including realising the opportunities of the developing green economy, overseas markets and more effective use of ICT through Building Information Management (BIM).
Stimulating the house building industry. The Government is committed to seeing a major increase in the supply of new homes where they are needed and wanted. The Housing Strategy, “Laying the Foundations—A Housing Strategy for England”, published last November announced an ambitious package of measures to increase significantly the supply of affordable homes.
Nationally, £4.5 billion is to be invested in new affordable housing and expect to deliver 170,000 new homes by 2015. This will help create 80,000 jobs in construction and related trades. In addition, we are providing £1.34 billion to support the development of new homes and related infrastructure. Our £570 million Get Britain Building investment fund will help get stalled sites moving again. Applications from the Peterborough area have been made to both round 1 and 2 of this process.
The £770 million Growing Places Fund is allowing Local Enterprise Partnerships to invest in local infrastructure that will boost local economic development and create new homes and jobs, including just over £16.1 million allocated to the Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough Economic Partnership. Both the A1139 Fletton Parkway Improvement Scheme and Phase 2 of the Peterborough Southbank Regeneration Project have been shortlisted by the LEP.
Final data for the 2010/11 academic year show that there were 60 apprenticeship starts in the ‘Construction, Planning and the Built Environment' sector subject area in Peterborough local authority similar to the number of starts in 2009/10.
Final data for the 2010/11 academic year show that there were 20 apprenticeship starts in the ‘Construction' framework in Peterborough local authority, down from 30 starts on 2009/10.
The Government are working closely with the construction industry to ensure they benefit from the biggest and best apprenticeships programme our country has seen.
To ensure apprenticeships are better able to respond to the future needs of the sector, we have asked Construction Skills, the body responsible for promoting the skills needs of the sector to government, to set out further plans to increase the availability of high quality apprenticeships.
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