CITB Committee Member Resigns Over Cuts to Training Funding

Mike Wharton, member of the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) Funding Committee has resigned in protest following CITB’s cuts to funding for construction training.

Responding to the closure of funding for roof training groups and Monday’s announcement by CITB that all short course training grant will be removed from January 2026, Mike Wharton who is the CEO of Complete Roofing Systems, said he can no longer remain as part of the committee “in all good conscience”.

Hearing that the number of courses to be grant funded will be slashed, and those that remain will only receive half of previous funding levels, Mike Wharton said, “both the defunding of the training groups and the latest announcement are undoubtedly going to increase the skills gap rather than decrease it.”

CITB Member Resigns

CITB has also stated that Employer Networks will only grant 50% of the cost of training from January 2026. Additionally, funding for training will only be available through Employer Networks in future. It means that even if roof training group members are willing to fund the continuation of their groups, they will not be able to access funding through them.

The nine roofing Group Training Officers whose posts are funded by CITB have been told their jobs will end in March 2026, or sooner if their group members decide to end the group before then. They will receive no redundancy payment or TUPE rights to transfer their employment.

CITB said they are working on a new model for specialist sector training and on its Training Groups FAQs page state:

Training Groups can submit a bid to deliver a sector specialist project. We will be advertising the tender through the government’s Central Digital Platform as well as our website and we will be engaging with interested organisations through pretender engagement webinars to be held in January. Further details will be sent out via email to Training Groups and will also appear on our website.

In his resignation letter, Mike Wharton comments:

“The training groups have unique relationships with their contractors and to lose this to employer networks is not just unfortunate, it’s discarding a critical industry resource. It is the key link between training requirement and delivery.

“Competition in training costs between providers and therefore value for industry money will also suffer via employer networks.”

Other Training Funding Cuts

CITB also announced yesterday that funding for level 7 qualifications will be stopped as well as attendance grants to cover the cost of sending employees for training. All achievement grants will be reduced to £600, also from January 2026.

CITB Funding Committee

The CITB Industry Funding Committee advises the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) on industry funding strategy, policy, and investments. It assesses funding impacts, and reviews exceptional funding requests, with members from industry and independent experts, ensuring funds support skills development in construction, the CITB says.

CITB adds that the committee’s work influences the grants scheme, with members like Chair Holly Price, guiding decisions on how levies are used for training and development.

Mike Wharton addressed his letter of resignation to Holly Price as Chair of the Funding Committee.

In his email dated 8^th December 2025, he said:

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