CIOB to help SMEs tackle framework deals

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is to help small- and medium-sized contractors (SMES) tackle growing concerns that they are being squeezed out of the market through frameworks.

Following comments from some of its 42,000 membership that SMEs are playing more of a subcontractor role on public sector contracts, the CIOB will now undertake a survey of exactly how big the problem is. The sample survey across England, Scotland and Wales will also look at current skills levels.

The problem of the squeeze on SMEs appears to have got so bad that many of the CIOB’s members, who are aggrieved that they have gone from being main contractors to subcontractors in areas such as health, are now trying to find niche areas for them to work in to avoid poor treatment as subbies.

A CIOB spokesman told CJ: “We will be conducting a very thorough look into how SMEs are being used on frameworks, especially high profile agreements such as the Building Schools for the Future programme.

“We don’t want to pre-empt the results, but once the results are in, we can then access the information and decide who we need to approach about the problem and what changes need to be made.”

He added: “The other element of the survey is to locate where the skills gaps are and how the problem can be solved. For example in Liverpool at the moment we are noticing that there are a lot of trainees in the building sector that are not being taken up by the industry.

"This is surprising as there is a lot of regeneration work going on in the area as it is about to be the City of Culture. We have to be sure we are not investing in too much foreign labour and not spending enough time and money on home-grown talent.  It might be something we need to address in terms of a restructure in how we approach education.”