From member projects to policy change: Licensing and skills in Scotland

With the Scottish Parliament in recess over the summer, I’ve managed to get away from Edinburgh to meet some members. In Ayrshire I caught up with Martin Sneddon winner of two Scotland Master Builder Awards and I would hope a strong contender for the finals in Manchester on 26 September. Another Ayrshire based member Thomas Lindsay of Doon Joinery and Building hosted me at a recent project he delivered for Ryanair.

Whilst most members deliver building projects for homeowners, there’s a sizeable cluster of members with commercial and public sector clients. Thomas built new internal classrooms for Ryanair at their training centre next to Prestwick airport. Fire doors, an 11-metre steel beam and hundreds of sheets of plasterboard were amongst the ingredients of this 364 square meter project.

Licensing

Thomas kindly agreed to be filmed by me explaining why he supports FMB’s Licence to Build campaign. Your Scotland Vice President Stephen O’Neill also stepped in front of the lens with both videos now in post-production.

Whilst the thrust of FMB’s Licence to Build campaign centres on Westminster, Scotland’s separate building standards system and powers over consumer advocacy mean that we need to continue to advocate for licensing here. Earlier this month I discussed licensing with Consumer Scotland: the statutory body for consumers in Scotland. I’m also on the Building Standards Futures Board with part of my role being to brief Scottish policy makers and industry stakeholders on the latest on licensing.

Labour and Skills

I’m sure all members are familiar with the CITB. I suspect not many will have had first-hand experience of the Scottish Qualifications Authority though. The relevance here is that the FMB meets meet both organisations and the Scottish Government’s skills agency Skills Development Scotland on a regular basis. I voice your feedback on skills and training matters. Now we can’t double skills and training grants, but we do have influence and the FMB is valued as the voice of the SME building sector.

Authors

Gordon Nelson

FMB Scotland Hub Director, Federation of Master Builders

Director, Federation of Master Builders Scotland

Gordon has nearly twenty years’ experience of working in membership organisations in Scotland and joined the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in 2014. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and for Unilever in business development, membership management and business-to-business marketing roles. Amongst his responsibilities in his role as the Director for FMB Scotland are public affairs, media relations, governance and representing member’s interests to Scottish policy makers and stakeholders within the Scottish construction industry. Gordon is the Secretary of the Cross-Party Group on Construction in the Scottish Parliament, and he is a member of the Scottish Building Standards Futures Board. Gordon represents the FMB on Scotland’s Construction Industry Collective Voice: which is comprised of the leading construction trade and professional bodies. In spring 2023 Gordon was appointed as an industry co-chair of the Construction Leaderships Forum’s (CLF) Transformation Board.

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