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Q&A with housing minister Dominic Raab
Housing minister Dominic Raab talks to Sophie Barnes about the construction workforce post-Brexit and what to expect from the Social Housing Green Paper
Picture: Rex Features
Research published last week by the Office for National Statistics showed that more than a quarter of London’s construction workforce is from outside the UK but within the EU.
In light of this, what are your plans for making sure the workforce remains stable post-Brexit?
We need to grasp the opportunities from Brexit. In the housing sector we have the chance to grow our own building workforce and this government has set out plans to help the sector ensure it has the skills it needs.
For example, we’re reforming the Construction Industry Training Board and have created a £34m fund to support training for the sector.
We’re also encouraging greater use of modern methods of construction, which will help build more high-quality homes and reduce our over-reliance on traditional building skills, and over time our over-reliance on cheap labour from abroad.
Seeing as this is your first CIH Housing conference and exhibition, what are you particularly looking forward to?
I’m proud to come here as the housing minister and talk about how together we are going to build the homes this country needs.
This is a heart and soul job. Housing touches everyone’s most basic aspirations, and what it takes for us to feel secure in our daily lives.
We’ve got a lot on our plate – from planning reform to the Social Housing Green Paper – and it will take a team effort to deliver. So I’m looking forward to engaging with the sector again.
We’re expecting the green paper next month. Can you give us any hints about what it might contain?
I believe that we need to tackle the stigma that too many tenants in social housing experience.
We’ll look to strengthen the role of the regulator, to give it more teeth, but also to empower residents as consumers and give them the voice and ability to hold landlords to account.
And a different kind of question to finish on: you’re a boxing fan, so who would win in a fight between a fit Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua?
I like them both and have watched them both live. Tyson Fury is under-rated and he doesn’t help himself with some of his comments.
But Joshua is tough to beat and I think he would have too much for Fury. It would be a great fight, though.
Dominic Raab will give a keynote address at 1pm today at Housing 2018
