CITB has funded the Innovation Driven Procurement Project to offer 40 SME and micro‐businesses free training, coaching and mentoring to help improve productivity and increase procurement opportunities. Businesses interested in participating must sign up by the end of November.
FIS Consultant Len Bunton continues with the theme of getting paid, and what options are open to FIS members. These monthly Blogs are designed to help FIS Members avoid common traps and build on our focus on collective experience.
My Blogs to date have attempted to share some ideas about improving the commercial management of your contracts. In other words, instilling best practice into the way FIS members run and manage their business. What I have endeavored to suggest is ways to ensure you get paid on time, and what you are due.
This time I want to talk about two issues. First the Conflict Avoidance Process, or CAP and Adjudication…
As part of its desire to increase engagement with business leaders across the sector, CLC is to launch an open recruitment competition to select four industry sponsors (one for each of our priority workstreams- below).
1. Building Safety
2. Net Zero and Biodiversity
3. People and Skills
4. Next Generation Delivery
Each sponsor will be asked to undertake the following, working closely with the CLC Co-Chair, Deputy Co-Chair, Workstream groups and BEIS officials:
1. Lead and oversee their respective workstream, working closely with various groups and sub-groups to develop and deliver the strategy to the agreed goals and timetable.
2. To act as industry spokesperson and champion for the relevant workstream to the sector, media and key stakeholders, working closely with the priority and sector industry leads.
3. To utilise their influence, personal and peer networks to support delivery of the priority, and effect change.
4. To offer constructive challenge to workstream leads, ensuring policy development addresses sector business requirements.
Application Process
Prospective applicants are asked to submit their CV and a covering letter (maximum 500 words) setting out their relevant skills and experience together with which role they are applying for to Construction.Enquiries@beis.gov.uk by close Monday 7 November. Your application will be assessed by CLC/BEIS officials.
Timetable
• 19 Oct: Applications open
• 14 Nov: Closing Date for applications
• w/c 21,28 November and 5 December: Interviews with short-listed applicants
• Early Dec: Successful candidates informed
• w/c 12 December: Successful candidates publicly announced
These roles are unpaid with appointments for a fixed-term basis of three years.
The time commitment for each role will include:
• Attending CLC monthly board meetings (1 hour)
• Policy engagement/communications (time to be agreed with the workstream lead)
• Chair workstream meetings and co-ordinate activities (4 hours per month)
If you have any further questions on the roles, please contact Stuart Young on Stuart.Young@beis.gov.uk
The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) will provide energy bill relief for non-domestic customers in Great Britain.
It applies to all businesses, including those in the construction sector. The Scheme covers energy use for 6 months from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The EBRS applies to all contracts signed after 1 December 2021, for the supply of energy during the period covered by the Scheme. Contracts signed before 1 December 2021 will not have been affected by the recent rise in wholesale prices, so will not be eligible for support under the Scheme.
The latest guidance can be found on GOV.UK here. This includes information on eligibility, how the Scheme works, how your bill will be reduced and the planned review.
There is a similar scheme for Northern Ireland, providing a comparable level of support. Find out more about how the Northern Ireland scheme here.
The Government has published an Energy Bills Support Factsheet. This provides further details of the support available for businesses and non-domestic consumers with energy bills, as well as details of other policy measures being taken to ensure energy security and affordability.
The Construction Leadership Council CLC has pulled together some useful information to ensure businesses in the construction sector are clear on and able to access any available support.
To access a useful Energy Bill Relief Scheme FAQ produced by the CLC click here
For further energy saving advice from the CLC for construction firms click here
The New Hospital Programme (NHP) will be holding an Industry Day on Tuesday 13 December to outline how businesses across the supply chain can play a role in the biggest hospital building programme in a generation. With a target to develop 48 hospitals by 2030, the NHP will provide further information on how it is building better, faster and greener, following publication of its first commercial pipeline earlier this year providing visibility of contract opportunities up to 2024.
Places at the Industry Day are limited and members can register their interest to attend either in‐person at the Vox Conference Venue in Birmingham (B40 1PU) or online.
The Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC) Working Rule Agreement (WRA) has been updated, following the 5% increase in the national pay rates in July 2022. The WRA ‐ also referred to as ‘The Pink Book’ ‐ sets out the terms and conditions for use across the industry and there are changes to the provisions relating to benefit schemes, pensions and temporary lay‐off.
As set out in the CIJC Holiday Entitlement 2022, this year’s two‐week Winter Break (Christmas shutdown) will run from normal finishing time on Friday 23 December 2022 to normal starting time on Monday 9 January 2023.