The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) has projected it will spend more than it earns for the third year in a row, despite a slight levy increase.
The charity, which coordinates training for engineering trades across the UK, projects a £2.2m budget deficit in 2024. This follows two years in which it reported net outflows in funds of £137,000 and £2m respectively.
The ECITB held £11.7m in reserves at the end of the year, well above the £6.5m minimum level agreed by the board.
ECITB chief executive Andrew Hockey emphasised to Construction News that using reserves was a planned strategy, agreed by the industry, to maximise the availability of levy funds.
He said: “For several years, the ECITB has invested additional funding, drawn from our reserves, in response to unprecedented demand for training from employers.”
The deficit projection takes account of an anticipated £1m levy increase during the year. The ECITB also anticipates more funds over the year following “establishment reviews”.
Hockey wrote that the £137,000 outflow in 2023 was a “conscious decision to use reserves and aligns with the three-year strategy”.
The charity drew in £29.7m from levy funds in 2023, up from £26.3m in 2022. The bump partly reflects a slight increase in levy payments for non-site workers, from 0.27 per cent to 0.33 per cent. The levy for site workers remained the same at 1.2 per cent.
However, the charity also increased outgoings. It spent £32.9m on its charitable activities, £2.7m more than in 2022.
In its three-year strategy, the charity said it would use £2m of its reserves from 2023-2025, topping up a levy income of £90m.
Most of its planned spending would be on training grants, split about half and half between grants for new industry entrants and those that are not.
Hockey, who took over as chief executive in July 2023, added: “We are proud to deliver on our promise to use our reserves to support industry training, as well as invest in strategic skills interventions, such as our £1m Regional Skills Hubs programme to grow training capacity for net-zero projects across Great Britain.”
Cast Consultancy chief executive Mark Farmer gave his review into the ECITB and sister organisation CITB to the government earlier this year. Its release has been delayed multiple times, after the responsible minister’s resignation in March and the change of government in July.
The government told Construction News in July it would publish the report at the end of the summer.
