Commenting on the Chancellor’s ‘Plan for Jobs’, NFRC Chief Executive James Talman commented saying:

“The Chancellor’s commitment to protect, support and create jobs is very welcome. His support package on job retention and apprenticeships will act as a lifeline for contractors and manufacturers across the roofing industry.”

“I applaud his recognition for the value of the UK construction industry, in particular, and he has demonstrated this in his support for the new Construction Talent Retention Scheme. We hope this important new scheme will mean specialist contractors including roofers will be retained in the sector should there be a significant downturn, and we avoid the deluge of lost skills seen in previous recessions”

“We tentatively support the Green Homes Grant, but the devil will be in the detail. All those undertaking retrofit should be sufficiently trained and accredited to avoid the mistakes of previous schemes. The government should use existing programmes such as CompetentRoofer and RoofCERT to identify quality roofers for roof associated works. We do feel that an opportunity was missed to not include low carbon energy construction solutions such as solar, too”

“While the government can support job creation in the short-term, in the long-term, jobs ultimately come from private investment. The Chancellor should now turn to taking a longer-term view of how to give commercial clients the confidence to invest. One place to start would be to reform our archaic capital allowance system on buildings and structures”