Development Loans News:-The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said all major developments under council control should comply with Unite’s construction charter.
The charter outlaws poor construction practices as well as protecting workers’ employment rights and complying with health and safety standards.
Deputy mayor for housing and residential development, James Murray, said: “The charter means workers and residents can be confident that projects we are involved with will follow best practice on conditions and pay for construction workers, and I urge other authorities to join us.”
The charter ensures building contractors and sub-contractors working on Greater London Assembly, GLA, developments will provide apprentice training and the industry rate of pay to workers.
Mr. Murray added this would include major GLA projects such as the residential re-development of St Ann’s hospital site in Haringey, north London.
Unite regional secretary for London and Eastern, Peter Kavanagh, said the charter would combine the GLA’s procurement power with the union’s influence in the workplace to ensure high standards.
“Workers will have the right to speak out on safety issues and be paid a fair rate for the job. The charter means there will be no blacklisting of workers.”
He added the charter would protect people from bogus self-employment scams and ensure construction workers were directly employed. Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest trade union with over 1.4 million members working across all sectors of the economy.
Other London councils follow suit
The London borough of Newham also signed up to the charter today with Barking and Dagenham local authority enlisting in July.
Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz, said without ‘hard-working’ builders the council would not be able to hit its housing and regeneration targets.
“The charter will not only improve employment standards for construction workers employed by this council but also ensure that building projects undertaken by the council are delivered to the highest standard.”
Development Loans by HZA
Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said commercial development finance lenders would welcome an initiative aimed at raising standards.
The building industry is currently working on developing an independent code of practice to drive up quality and increase consumer protection. The sector also plans to engage an ombudsman body that would provide dispute resolution services.
In July the GLA launched its good work standard scheme to encourage fair pay and conditions with every London employer to pay at least the capital’s minimum living wage of £10.55 an hour.