The CITB made £198.2m from its levy last year with total expenditure for the training body coming in at £302.4m, bringing in a net profit of £8.1m according to its just published accounts for 2016.
The body said its operational costs dropped 26% to £34.2m in 2016 and that the construction industry received back 104% of the money it paid in through the levy.
The body supported more than 26,000 construction apprenticeships through its grants scheme, and provided £2m of funding to nearly 500 SME employers through its skills and training fund.
Sarah Beale: achievements
Major contractors made £59.4m in levy payments and received £52.7m back in grant and support payments.
Small and micro-sized contractors, however, paid in £92m and only received back £51m.
Meanwhile, the CITB slashed staff numbers by 9.9% in 2016, ending the year with 1,314 workers.
Sarah Beale, chief executive of CITB, said: “2016 was a year of significant achievements, which saw CITB improve its support for employers of all sizes in each nation and region of the country. While doing so, we made some tough choices by reducing staff numbers and overhauling our pension scheme, which have made us a leaner, more efficient organisation.
“Changes to our finances, our evidence base and our funding work, and clarity on our future offer, put us in a strong position. They allow us to modernise into the organisation that can successfully partner with our industry to meet its skills needs in the years ahead.”
Beale, who joined the body at the beginning of 2017, spoke to CM a few months ago and revealed they were driving to reduce its £90m cash reserves as well as launching a number of initiatives ahead of the industry vote at the end of this summer.
Speaking about the new accounts, James Wates, chairman of CITB, said: “CITB must play a central role in tackling the skills challenges currently felt in the construction industry. This includes continuing the journey of simplifying the grants scheme and making sure that it targets the industry’s precise skills needs, now and in the future.”
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“Small and micro-sized contractors, however, paid in £92m and only received back £51m.”
If this isn’t a fine example of how the CITB is not fit for purpose, and is starving small and micro construction companies of much needed funds, I don’t know what is.
Now is the time for the CITB levy to be scrapped.