CIC welcomes some of the Autumn Budget measures to support the sector

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has cautiously welcomed the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget but has warned that many of its plans for the built environment rely on a construction workforce that has fallen significantly in number and urgently needs boosting.

On a positive note, the representative forum for the professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the construction industry has said that it hopes Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s confirmation of continued investment in major infrastructure projects such as Sizewell C, the Lower Thames Crossing and regional regeneration initiatives will “set the tone for growth and transformation across the built environment”.

Commenting after last Thursday’s budget announcement in Parliament, CIC has cautiously welcomed the measures that the government has announced to support local authorities so they can accelerate social housing as well as the help the Labour administration has offered to overcome planning bottlenecks through a fund to recruit 350 extra planners for England.

“There is the need for an estimated 2,200 planning officers across England and Wales to address the skills gap,” Matt Mahony, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at CIC, told Building Engineer.

“This shortfall in local authority resources and knowledge undermines the Local Planning Authorities' ability to negotiate with developers on financial contributions or allocate these funds effectively for communities. It delays thousands of homes and it can lead to drastically under-resourced enforcement teams, unable or lacking the skills to monitor the new developments. Providing the funding to recruit 350 extra planners in England is a very welcome measure but is unlikely to be enough.”

CIC had strongly supported the Construction Leadership Council’s pre-budget letter urging the government to accelerate the adoption of spatial infrastructure, boost planning resources and strengthen policies in retrofit and housing. These measures, CIC added, would unlock investment, improve productivity and provide stability throughout the construction sector.

Reflecting on the budget announcement, Mahony said that, in terms of retrofit and housing, it was disappointing not to see any incentives to support first time buyers which would help stimulate movement in the housing market.

“We are also awaiting announcements on the Future Homes and Buildings Standards. For retrofit, the scrapping of ECO will likely lead to the work being transferred to the Warm Homes Plan, which has received an extra £1.5bn in funding,” he said.

“This may ultimately be a positive step but unfortunately the Warm Homes Plan remains in limbo with further details expected soon.”

Alongside this, CIC welcomes the £13bn that the government will devolve to local mayors for skills development and infrastructure projects, helping to strengthen the construction workforce, which it warns has fallen to its lowest proportion of total UK employment in more than 100 years, adding this could hamper the government’s ambitions unless it is boosted.

Highlighting another positive from the budget, CIC has welcomed the announcement that the minimum wage for apprentices will rise by 6% from April 2026, noting that this will further support the development of future talent. It also saw the government’s decision to reform landfill tax as a positive development.

While the representative forum for the professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations welcomed the fact that there would be no further increases in National Insurance for the industry to absorb, it did warn that the sector would need to resolve the “tension between any potential drag on recruitment” through an increased minimum wage with the need to “ensure that construction pays entrants enough to make it a viable career choice given the cost of living increases”.

Commenting on the budget, CIC Chief Executive Graham Watts said that although the Chancellor’s announcement did contain some good news and was probably less damaging than it could have been, “there were lots of absences from the industry’s asks”.