Emma Reynolds MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, in a speech to the HBF’s Annual Policy Conference, said:

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

At this conference you are focusing on the key issues facing the house building industry today and the challenges ahead.

I very much welcome that.

It is right that together we are focused on the barriers that stand in the way of increasing house building.

My message today is that a strong partnership between government and your industry will be essential if we are to overcome them.

And if we do, there will be huge benefits for our country and that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

The opportunity that a big increase in house building can bring – in jobs, and skills and training in particular.

And how we – a future Labour Government - and industry - can realise it together.

We meet here today amid an emerging recovery in housing starts.

After such a long and damaging period of stagnation - a recovery is welcome.

But - with housing completions still historically low – at their lowest in peacetime since the 1920s - we know there is still a long, long way to go.

After all, the number of homes built over the past 12 months actually fell by five per cent compared with the previous year.

There is a clear reason for this – the Government has simply not done enough to boost housing supply.

We were taken aback that - one of the first things this Government did when it came to office in 2010 - was to cut the affordable homes programme by 60 per cent.

It is regrettable, but comes as no surprise, that across the country, the combination of lower capital spending and planning changes have contributed to a falling share of affordable homes within overall housing starts.

And on large-scale development we’ve had promise after promise on Garden Cities but nothing of any substance has been delivered.

The government recently announced a new Garden City in Ebbsfleet and the building of 15,000 homes - but many of you will have noticed that this is 5,000 fewer homes than those announced for the same place in 2012.

So the Government has been slow to tackle the housing crisis and has done next to nothing on boosting supply.

It has, however, focused its efforts on generating greater demand.

We support help for first time buyers which is why we support ‘Help to Buy’.

The first part of the scheme has helped to unlock finance from a dysfunctional lending market and rightly focuses on new homes.

But the second phase of Help to Buy, with taxpayer-guaranteed mortgages of up to 95 per cent, has been widely criticised.

There is a real risk that soaring house prices are pushing home ownership out of the reach of the very first-time buyers that the scheme should be helping.

That’s why Ed Balls has said the Chancellor should consider reducing the scheme’s threshold from £600,000 to below £400,000 - and it should be targeted at first-time buyers.

We believe that the fundamental flaw in the Government’s current plan is to rely on boosting housing demand, while failing to take any significant action to boost housing supply.

This approach will fail to tackle the housing shortage and secure a lasting recovery.

We need a Government that is willing to show bold leadership, willing to plan for the long-term and willing to develop a housing strategy that has building more homes at its heart.

That is exactly what the next Labour Government will do.

We are committed to implementing a long-term plan to tackle the housing shortage and address the cost-of-living crisis.

We are committed to getting at least 200,000 homes built a year by 2020.

That’s why we have asked Sir Michael Lyons, who I know spoke here earlier today, to lead our housing review.

His objective, supported by a panel of experts - including Mark Clare from Barratts and Julia Evans from the National Federation of Builders - is to deliver a roadmap which the next Labour Government can begin to implement from day one.

To achieve our ambition, we are relentlessly focused on bringing down the barriers to increasing house building.

On land, Sir Michael’s review is looking at how we get much more residential land to market.

How best to tackle unnecessary land banking.

And what further changes are needed to the planning system.

We’ve been clear that we will keep the National Planning Policy Framework but we want to improve it – for instance by ensuring that communities that want to expand but do not have the land - can do so.

The so-called right to grow.

On finance and investment, our housing review is looking at:

What flexibilities could be granted to local authorities so they can build more affordable homes.

How we can make the best of investment and how we can lever in more investment- public and private - including institutional investment.

The review is also looking at the package of incentives and powers that are needed to forge ahead with the next generation of New Towns and Garden Cities – a substantial programme of developments rather than the piecemeal action taken by this Government.

Sir Michael’s review has generated a great deal of interest and I know many of you will have already contributed on all of these issues.

We have received over 250 submissions – a sign of the interest in, but also the importance of, the review’s work.

We have been working closely together with Sir Michael and his team and we have already drawn some key lessons.

We know that to meet our ambition we need to boost diversity and competition in the industry.

That’s why I set out earlier this year a range of proposals to boost the role of small, medium and custom builders by giving them greater access to land.

And that’s why Ed Balls has called for a Help to Build guarantee scheme to increase access to finance for small builders.

We have also set out plans to establish a British Investment Bank and a network of regional banks, closer to business, which will help to provide patient capital for house building firms.

Land and finance are the two biggest barriers that small builders have told us they face.

But large scale development is important too.

Ed Balls has been clear that the next generation of New Towns and Garden Cities will have the full backing of a Labour Treasury.

And on finance more generally he has marked out housing as a central priority for investment.

To build more homes and crucially to build thriving communities, we also need to make sure we deliver the necessary infrastructure.

That is why we will implement Sir John Armitt’s recommendation of a National Infrastructure Commission.

Land, investment and infrastructure.

These are all things that – if we get right - will help us meet our ambition of building at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020, sustaining it and then exceeding it.

And with a significant increase in house building comes significant benefit.

For every 100,000 homes built, one per cent is added to GDP and 230,000 new jobs will be created.

New affordable housing helps drive economic growth allowing businesses to attract and keep workers.

But as well as opportunities there are risks.

We are already seeing warnings of looming skill shortages.

Many of you in the industry here today have already told me of your concerns.

Over a third of respondents to a recent industry survey said that labour shortages are already restricting building - with skills shortages increasing across all trades.

And a recent cross-party parliamentary report highlighted that there is an expectation that some vacancies could be filled by migrants from other European countries, as they have in the past, to fill skills shortages. We shouldn’t have to rely on that.

With over 900,000 of our young people unemployed – we need to do better.

Now I know that your industry is already thinking about these issues.

I believe that an active partnership between your industry and a future Labour Government, can work to turn an emerging issue on skills, into a huge opportunity.

So what are the causes of the skills gap?

First – let’s take the structure and culture of the industry.

I understand that the global financial crash caused profound problems for your industry.

And as a whole the construction industry lost up to 400,000 jobs.

Many of those who lost their jobs have re-trained in other industries and are not coming back.

I understand that the cyclical nature of the industry - makes the problem of skills shortages - a recurring issue.

In addition, the culture of subcontracting with long supply chains means that big contractors - who win work - often do not directly employ the skilled trades-people who do the actual building.

Though I know that through the Construction Industry Training Board levy, the bigger contractors contribute to training.

There has, nevertheless, been a long history of under-investment in skills and training in the industry.

Second - let’s take training standards and funding for training.

In the Construction Industry Training Board, the industry already has a champion for training which has been awarded an “outstanding” by Ofsted assessment.

But we know that many employers in the industry find the raft of different Government funding opportunities excessively complex.

We also know that the standard and type of training is not always what employers or the young people need.

Too often courses are offered that meet the needs of the past rather than those of the future.

Third - there is also a small number of young people employed in the industry relative to the wider economy.

Just three per cent of employers recruit 17 to 18 year olds into their first job straight from further education compared to five per cent elsewhere.

And only four per cent recruit new graduates into their first job compared with seven per cent across the economy more broadly.

And while apprenticeships across the economy have been increasing – sometimes at the expense of quality - over the past few years - those in construction have been falling.

The number of apprenticeship starts in construction this year is down by 400 compared with 2009, while completions are down 8,000 over the same period – a 68 per cent decrease.

And as a whole, across construction, planning and the built environment starts are down a third and completions by a half over the same period.

Finally, there is the issue of how the construction industry is perceived.

Too often, house building and construction are not sectors that are preferred employment choices for young people.

Recent evidence found that construction was marked as four out of ten in terms of attractiveness.

But the industry also struggles to attract employees of all ages from outside the sector.

And there is a clear lack of diversity.

Fewer than two per cent of employees at trade level are women, and women make up only 13 per cent of the workforce overall.

Ethnic minorities are similarly under-represented.

But the problem is not just on building sites – it is also in the boardroom.

In terms of the make-up of the boards of top nine house-builders – of 86 board members, only 15 are women – less than 18 per cent. Of those 15 women, 13 are non-executive directors.

And there is not one woman Chief Executive or Chairman.

None of these problems will be solved overnight – but we are clear that they must be tackled together – in partnership between industry and Government.

As Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, outlined last month, skills are Labour’s number one priority for our long-term plan - Agenda 2030 - to earn and grow our way to a higher standard of living for all.

We want to work with the industry to develop a skills strategy, so that we can overcome the skills gap and ensure an increase in house building brings jobs, apprenticeships and training benefits to Britain.

There is always likely to be a cyclical nature to the industry but there are aspects that we can address.

And together I hope that we can make the industry more resilient in the good times and the bad.

We are also determined to address the culture of bogus self-employment – it is a real problem in the industry – and we have set out proposals to tackle it.

On apprenticeships across the economy, my Shadow Ministerial colleagues in the Business, Innovation and Skills team have been clear that we want to drive up both their quality and quantity.

That’s why we will offer house building and construction employers a something-for-something deal.

We will give employers greater control of money for training and powers to set training standards that genuinely meet your interests and the needs of young people, but in return we ask that you work to increase the number of high quality apprenticeships in the industry and through your supply chains.

We are also determined to protect the apprenticeship brand from being devalued by low quality courses.

We want to work with you towards a system in which all the house building and construction apprenticeships are level three qualifications and last a minimum of two years.

The public sector must also take a lead.

We want to see Local Authorities use procurement to create more opportunities by requiring all major contracts to offer a level of training and employment of young people.

And central government must do the same.

It was a mistake for the Homes and Communities Agency to remove its guidance for introducing and monitoring employment commitments in housing contracts for projects that were funded using social housing grant.

As a result, since 2011, the HCA has had no national target on apprenticeships.

I want to see that guidance restored so that there are minimum training standards for any organisation in receipt of social housing grant.

We will work with social housing providers to achieve that.

As well as boosting the apprenticeship opportunities for young people, there is also an urgent need here and now.

That’s why we also need to recruit those with experience or knowledge from other industries – one such source of talent is the armed forces.

Up to 20,000 ex-armed forces personnel join the civilian job market every year – with another 30,000 being lost by 2020 as a result of government cuts.

Many of our ex-armed forces have the right skills such as leadership, team-work and logistics, as well as many who are trained in the trades, to make a big contribution to the industry.

I know some construction companies are already engaged with schemes to employ ex-armed forces, such as Morgan Sindall and Lend Lease.

I also know that Redrow Homes are involved in an innovative scheme in Wiltshire helping former soldiers to retrain to work in construction.

I commend these initiatives.

But I would like to see more of the industry work to get ex-armed forces into construction.

It’ll be good for the industry and good for those who have served our country so well.

The Labour Shadow Defence Team, led by Vernon Coaker, is currently undertaking a review on how to improve the transition from military to civilian life for our Service Personnel and I am working with my colleagues to explore the best ways to boost this recruitment.

And I also look forward to working with the HBF who I understand are already focused on this issue.

Finally, if the industry is serious about bringing in new talent, it must widen the talent pool and overhaul its image.

It is essential that as part of any skills strategy, the need to boost diversity amongst women and ethnic minority groups is taken seriously.

My message today is clear – we are relentlessly focused on removing the barriers to house building.

The skills gap is one such barrier.

But we are determined that in partnership with you in the industry, that this specific and significant barrier can be overcome.

I look forward to working with you over the coming months together with my colleagues to tackle it.

So that we can realise the real benefits of an increase in house building.

In building the homes our country needs.

But also by creating jobs, and apprenticeships and training.

By working in partnership, we can build for the future together.

Thank you.

Ends