The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Home Builders Federation (HBF) have announced a new partnership aimed at tackling the UK's housing crisis.

The £2.7 million Home Building Skills Partnership plans to train over 45,000 new entrants and 1,000 experienced workers by 2019.

It will work with research from some 40 UK house builders ensuring the industry has the necessary skills to build more homes, including initiatives to promote collaboration on skills across the supply chain.

In addition, over 3,500 construction businesses will be supported by the partnership.

Key initiatives of the four-year programme include:

• Research led by HBF and employers, to get a better understanding of the barriers faced by the home building sector.

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• Design and delivery of a new Homebuilding Training and Developmental Needs Analysis tool.

• Establishment of a framework that will set common standards for skills and training in the home building sector.

With 181,000 new homes delivered last year and Government aiming to have one million new houses by 2020, both CITB and HBF said it was "imperative" industry capacity was increased.

Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman at HBF, said: "To enable us to continue increasing output, such that we can deliver the high quality new homes the country needs, it is absolutely crucial we build up industry capacity. To allow us to do it is essential we have a clear focus on delivering the training the industry needs. The partnership will enable us to develop targeted training that meets the specific needs of our industry in a structured way so we can grow steadily and sustainably."

Steve Radley, Policy Director at CITB, added: "Homebuilding faces major skills challenges and we will only meet them through new ways of working. Homebuilders have said they want to work with CITB to anticipate their skill needs, to get closer to their supply chains and to ensure training provision and qualifications meet their needs.

"The Homebuilding Skills Partnership will deliver the infrastructure, the tools and the funding to meet the industry’s skill needs."

(LM)