Author Archives: HM Government

A transformative deal between government and the construction industry which could add billions of pounds to the economy has been announced by Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark today (29 November 2017).

Government and industry have worked extensively since the launch of the Industrial Strategy green paper to agree the Sector Deal, developing a joint strategic direction for the sector that reflects shared ambition to modernise the industry and to respond to the challenges of demographic change and Brexit.

The deal, announced in the Industrial Strategy white paper on Monday (27 November), will prepare the UK construction sector for the future, helping companies build better performing buildings and infrastructure at a greater speed and reduced cost, while supporting the government’s ambitious programmes in both infrastructure and housing.

By transforming the sector through better adoption of digital and manufacturing technologies the Construction Sector Deal aims to deliver quality infrastructure and housing more quickly, and at reduced cost to the taxpayer, while boosting the skills of construction workers and training the next generation of workers.

Supported by £170 million of government investment over three years through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, and £250 million of match funding from industry, the deal will bring together the construction, manufacturing, energy and digital sectors in a new hub to commercialise technologies capable of building assets which are both cost effective and energy efficient.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

Our construction industry makes a vital contribution to the UK economy and is one of our most important sectors, with businesses that add £138 billion a year to the economy, contribute 8% of our GDP, and employ over 3.1 million workers.

The Sector Deal we have announced today will see government and industry working together to support, invest and transform the construction sector, creating high-skilled and well-paying jobs, while delivering more housing for people across the country.

The agreement embodies our vision for a modern Industrial Strategy, with government and industry working together in a strategic partnership towards the common goal of higher productivity, and a more skilled construction workforce with more earning power.

Andrew Wolstenholme, Chair of the Construction Leadership Council, said:

I am delighted that construction has been included in the first wave of sector deals. It presents a huge opportunity for one of the UK’s largest industries and the broader economy.

With a projected £600 billion pipeline of infrastructure projects to be delivered over the coming decades, it is vital that the industry and government work together to realise the full potential of the deal.

We have a golden opportunity to reap economic gains from improved productivity and the more efficient construction of assets, creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs in all parts of the UK and driving up exports to the global infrastructure market.

Tony Meggs, Chief Executive of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) said:

This government has ambitious plans for infrastructure over the next decade. It is vital that the construction sector is modern and efficient in the way it delivers these plans. Only then will we see future investment continue to flow and make progress in closing the UK’s productivity gap.

The IPA very much supports this Construction Sector Deal; we will support and align with industry as it implements the programme.

Approach to skills

The announcement follows the launch of the Industrial Strategy white paper yesterday by the Business Secretary, setting out a long-term plan for how Britain can build on its economic strengths, address its productivity challenge, positively embrace technological change, and support businesses and its workers.

With a clear emphasis on building skills for the future, the deal commits the sector to adopting a new strategic approach to skills development, ensuring that standards and qualifications for the skills needed, now and in the future, are developed, and industry is able to use all sources of funding effectively. This will deliver:

• a reformed Construction Industry Training Board, with greater industry leadership and engagement, focused on delivering future skills needs – particularly amongst SMEs
• a co-ordinated approach to maximising the benefits of the Apprenticeship Levy – creating new apprenticeship trailblazers, and increasing the number of construction apprentices
• a unified and more effective industry approach to promoting construction careers, and removing barriers to employment in the industry; this help the sector to recruit, train and retain a more diverse workforce, with higher levels of professional and technical levels, and management skills

Through the Sector Deal the industry will also be working with government to produce a Construction Skills Strategy aimed at retaining and retraining a workforce that is fit for the future and able to deliver on the government’s infrastructure and housing ambitions.

To help upskill construction workers and retrain them in new valuable skills, the government announced in its Industrial Strategy white paper that it would be launching a new National Retraining Scheme that will help make sure workers have the right skills to match employer’s needs, beginning with a £64 million investment for digital and construction training.

Government has also set out its ambition to make the UK’s technical education system as prestigious as its higher education. In the recently published T level action plan, government announced that construction will be one of the first of 4 T levels to be taught from 2020.

Sector Deal objectives

With the sector focused on delivering on these 3 key themes, the deal has 4 clear objectives that it is committed to achieving by 2025:

• 33% reduction in the cost of construction and the whole life cost of assets
• 50% reduction in the time taken from beginning-to-end of new build and refurbished assets
• 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment
• 50% reduction in the trade gap between total exports and total imports of construction products and materials

Centre for Digital Built Britain Programme

Government has also today announced the launch of the Centre for Digital Built Britain at the University of Cambridge. The new centre, which forms part of the ‘Transforming Construction’ Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund investment, will develop Building Information Modelling (BIM), sensors, data analytics and smart systems technologies that can be embedded in new building projects.

The Centre for Digital Built Britain Programme, first announced in the 2016 budget, will deliver reductions in whole-life costs and carbon emissions of buildings, whilst improving construction productivity and capacity by using intelligent building information models, sensing technology and secure data and information infrastructure.

Building for 2050

Government is also investing £1.4 million in a research project called ‘Building for 2050’. Led by AECOM, this project is gathering evidence from 3 housing developments located in Swansea, Bristol and Manchester with the aim of uncovering the barriers to developing low cost, low carbon housing.

The project will test innovative methods of construction and will involve working closely with households throughout the project to track their views, and to report on progress as we seek to reduce the environmental impact of UK homes by 2050.

Full details of the Sector Deal agreement between industry and government will be published on GOV.UK in the coming weeks.

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The DVLA spoke to around 1,000 motorists to get their thoughts on personalised registrations for cars. Whilst names or nicknames topped the list, registrations that represented a business were also a popular choice. This was followed by registrations that represented a favourite sports team or pet.

1 in 10 of those surveyed who had a personalised registration had received it as a gift.

Currently, the top most wanted registrations searched for on the DVLA Personalised Registrations website include BE11 CKY and SB51 MON.

DVLA’s Personalised Registrations has over 50 million registrations available to buy online and if customers purchase by 15 December the registration will arrive in time for Christmas.

Whilst some personalised registration numbers can sell at auction for hundreds of thousands of pounds, those looking for gifts on a smaller budget will find registrations starting at just £250.

Jody Davies, DVLA Personalised Registrations’ Senior Sales Manager, said:

With names topping the list of preferred personalised registrations we know that people value the thought that goes into the gift. Using our website’s search facility customers can try different combinations to find the perfect gift for the motorist.

And with over 50 million registrations available there’s plenty of opportunity to be creative and snap up a plate in time for Christmas.

Personalised registrations can be bought online 24 hours a day. A dedicated team can also help customers find the registration they want over the phone by ringing 0300 123 0883. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8.00am to 4.30pm.

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Mr President, time and time again, we have voiced our despair at the depths of the suffering of the people of South Sudan. The scale of the numbers is deeply shocking: one third of the population have been forced to flee their homes and more than half the population lack enough food to feed themselves and their families. And yet, the parties to the conflict, including the Government, continue to mount offensives on innocent civilians. They are deaf to the misery of their own people. It is more important than ever that the international community shows the people of South Sudan that we will act together to work for peace, even if South Sudan’s leaders will not.

Innocent civilians continue to pay the price for the failures of the political elite, but President Kiir’s long overdue decree ordering safe passage for humanitarian agencies is welcome. We hope that this will result in real improvements in getting assistance to those that so desperately need it. Because physical restrictions, whether resolved or not, represent just the tip of the iceberg, as bureaucratic impediments including costly registration fees, and delays in receiving permits, prevent humanitarians from reaching those most in need.

Like others, we are extremely concerned that UNMISS continues to face significant restrictions of movement, including restrictions imposed by Government forces. We are particularly troubled by a disturbing trend of harassment, threats and physical assault of UN staff. This must stop immediately. Those responsible will be judged by their actions, not their words.

Mr President, South Sudan is at a cross roads. Its leaders are being offered a last chance to commit to peace and demonstrate that they care for their people and their country. They have repeatedly failed to do so. Too many times ceasefires have been declared while gunshots continue to ring out. But IGAD’s Revitalisation Forum offers hope for the people of South Sudan, and I would like to reiterate the UK’s full support for this process and to thank both IGAD and the African Union for their hard work over recent months. IGAD foreign ministers and the Special Envoy have actively reached out to both the elites and civil society across the region as part of their revitalization process. The UK stands ready to support the region’s work to bring an end to the conflict and suffering in South Sudan, and we welcome the African Union Peace and Security Council’s clearly worded communiqué of the 22 of September 2017.

The international community must use the full range of options to ensure that all parties meaningfully and constructively engage. This cannot be an open-ended process that allows more delays, leading to more suffering for the people of South Sudan. As the African Union communiqué says, it must be clear that this is a final chance and that there will be consequences for not engaging. As a Council, we should commit to return to this issue early in the new year in order to consider whether we have seen enough progress, whether there are individuals or parties who are blocking peace, and be ready to take appropriate action if so.

Given the fragile situation in South Sudan, we are concerned that the Government is considering running elections next year. There is no possibility that the conditions for good elections will be in place next year. Seeking to hold them when the conditions are not right is likely to drive further conflict. As the African Union and IGAD have set out, the timelines in the Peace Agreement must be revised to allow for a conducive environment for holding elections. The National Dialogue must be held in support of the Revitalisation of the Peace Agreement; it cannot provide a solution in itself.

Mr President, I want to conclude by reiterating our plea to the leaders of South Sudan: Stop the violence and engage meaningfully in the revitalisation process. Stop blocking and impeding UNMISS and the Regional Protection Force. Stop attacks against UN and humanitarian workers. And stop denying humanitarian aid from reaching your people. You are starving them to death.

Mr President, South Sudan is at a cross roads. We should do all that we can to support the region’s efforts to ensure its leaders choose the right path.

Thank you.

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Thank you Mr President and thank you to the briefers for updating us following the disturbing news footage we all saw last week showing migrants being sold into slavery in Libya. Today let us stand together as an international community in our commitment to eliminate the abhorrent crime of modern slavery and human trafficking, and safeguard the lives and dignity of those who are most vulnerable.

Like many Libyans in-country, I share the disgust and grave concern at the news footage from last week. I am deeply concerned that civilians continue to suffer inexcusably from the conflict in Libya and that in the absence of the rule of law, they can suffer human rights abuses of the worst kind. I welcome the announcement by the Government of National Accord of Libya of an immediate investigation into this matter and its commitment to ensure that those involved are brought to justice and this vile practice is stopped.

We reaffirm our support – working alongside Libya and international efforts – to bring to account those responsible for such crimes. And we encourage all Member States to continue to work with Libyan authorities in pursuing allegations of human rights abuses to ensure that those individuals responsible are held to account.

After several debates, the Security Council is well informed of the challenges we face in tackling unmanaged migration, including through Libya. We are aware of the real vulnerability of migrants to trafficking and modern slavery. We want migration to be safe, legal and well-managed. We have discussed the need for a comprehensive approach, addressing the root causes of migration, as well as their consequences. And with resolutions 2331 and 2388, we are now well equipped to take action.

Instability creates a permissive environment in which criminal networks exploit civilians and migrants and operate trafficking networks for their own gains, including through the illegal detention of migrants. We will continue to support the Libyan authorities to improve conditions in the centres currently under their control, and to establish oversight of remaining ungoverned centres.

This Council has seen recent progress to revitalise the Libyan political process and take steps forward to stabilising the country. We are clear that the human rights situation in Libya can only be improved sustainably under the stability of a united and representative Government. A safe, secure and prosperous Libya that is able to confidently tackle the challenges in the region is in all our interests and we continue to support the UN’s Action Plan for Libya.

We must all recognise that it is not only the trafficked individuals and their loved ones that are directly affected by this horrendous crime. Violent extremists profit financially from this trade in human misery and use it to fund terrorist activity that affects us all. We must integrate our understanding of trafficking and modern slavery with our efforts to combat terrorism and we must eradicate the use of slavery as a means to resource terrorist groups.

Human rights monitoring and capacity-building of police are central to efforts to build stability and address trafficking by field missions. And, more broadly, we should consider how anti-trafficking is part of a Sustaining Peace agenda, which is all about using a cross-section of UN tools to prevent conflict and build peace. It is clear that trafficking itself can only be addressed through a holistic, cross-pillar approach by the UN.

As is always the case with today’s frantic news cycles, the reports from Libya which have so shocked us all will soon be displaced by other headlines and drop off the news agenda altogether eventually. While that is to be expected, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of responsibility: The fact that slavery continues in the 21st century despite all the progress that has been made in defending human rights is reprehensible. Let us commit to work together to preserve our attention on this issue and sustain our action to ensure this practice does not continue in Libya or anywhere else. It is only by doing so that we can hope to succeed in the maintenance of international peace and security. Mr President if members of this council consider a statement would be helpful then we would be happy to work with them on such a text.

Thank you.

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