What it is and what you need to do

CITB raises and collects a levy from construction businesses to:

  • Help CITB-registered employers upskill their workforce by providing grants and funding for training

  • Set and review training standards to improve site safety

  • Promote construction as a positive career choice to attract new talent to the industry

Last year the Levy enabled us to invest £296m into skills and training for the construction industry, and provide nearly £130m in grant support to our registered employers.

CITB is required by law to raise a Levy Assessment on all employers in the construction industry. More information about the legislation governing CITB can be found at the bottom of this page.

Who needs to register?

An employer, for CITB purposes, is a person or company with one or more employees, including staff on the payroll and subcontractors.

The construction industry for our purposes may differ significantly from what you imagine it to be. Our lists of construction and non-construction activities can be found in Step 1.

If you believe you meet the requirements for registration follow the steps below.

Step 1: Register your business

If your business is mostly engaged in construction work and you employ one or more staff or subcontractor, you need to register with CITB.

  • Fill out the Employer Registration Form online

  • CITB will review the information you provide and if we need more details, the team will be in touch within 10 days

  • Once registered, you’ll need to complete a Levy Return every year until you are no longer an employer within the construction industry.

Some businesses may not need to register. These are called non-construction activities. Examples include:

  • Gardening, plumbing, farming

  • Charities, housing associations

  • Solar panel work, skip hire, haulage.

View our full list of construction and non-construction activities.

If you are unsure whether you need to be registered or not, please contact us by telephone 0344 994 4455 or email levy.grant@citb.co.uk.

Step 2: Apply for grants and funding

You can apply for grants and funding from the date of your confirmed Levy registration, you may also apply for apprenticeship grants for the 12-month period before your registration.

Step 3: Send your Levy Return

Every year in May, CITB will send you a Levy Return. This could be in the post or by email to complete online if you are registered for our online services.

If your business is registered with CITB after 31 March of any year, you will receive your first Levy Return the following May.

  • You must fill it in and send it back. You can send it online or by post. Full instructions will be provided when you receive your Levy Return.

  • You must send it by 30 June to keep receiving grants

  • If you miss the deadline, you might lose access to grant, and if we do not receive a Levy Return at all be sent an estimated assessment:

    • Missing the 30 June deadline could mean that your grants are withheld until we receive a Levy Return

    • If we have not received your Levy Return by 30 November you may lose access to any withheld and future grants claims

    • If you do not send us your Levy Return before it is due to be assessed you may receive an estimated assessment that could be higher than one based on your figures.

Find out how to complete your Levy Return.

Step 4: Assess your Levy

CITB checks your form when it is submitted.

  • We may contact you to ask for more information if something is missed on your form or something doesn’t look quite right

  • We may ask to verify your Levy Return. Learn more about verification.

  • We will send you a Levy Assessment Notice in Spring

  • If we have not received your Levy Return you will receive an estimated bill.

Your Levy Assessment Notice tells you how much you need to pay, if anything, and how to pay. Some employers may qualify for a Small Business Levy Exemption or Reduction.

An estimated assessment may be higher than one based on your Levy Return.

Step 5: Pay your Levy

If you have a Levy to pay, you can:

  • Pay it all at once within one month. Full instructions can be found on your Levy Assessment Notice

  • Use Direct Debit to pay in up to 10 instalments (unless you have received an estimated Assessment)

  • If you did not complete a Levy Return and receive an estimated Assessment, there are two options:

    1. Pay the estimated Assessment in full within one month

    2. Submit a correct and complete Levy Return for assessment, which you will then pay by Direct Debit

If your Levy is not paid on time you will not receive grants until it is paid. If you do not pay any Levy that is due CITB could take you to court. If you are struggling to pay your Levy please contact us at levy.grant@citb.co.uk or 0344 994 4455.

Appeal if you disagree

If you don’t agree with your assessment to Levy, you can:

  • Informally challenge with CITB by emailing levy.grant@citb.co.uk and setting out the specific reasons why you consider your assessment to be incorrect. If your dispute relates to business activity, we will conduct a comprehensive review to determine whether the assessment was correctly raised.

    We are aware of third-party organisations providing this service for a fee, but CITB provides this service free of charge.

  • Formally appeal to your local Employment Tribunal within one month from the date on your Levy Assessment Notice. You do not have to pay a fee to lodge an appeal.
    The Employment Tribunal Service is an independent judicial body and the UK’s formal employment dispute system. Its jurisdiction extends to resolving legal disputes between CITB and employers assessed to Levy.

Challenges or appeals can only be considered for the way that the Levy has been calculated (quantum) or whether a business’s main activity meets the criteria for Levy (scope).

Appeals on any other grounds such as financial hardship, lack of training, no apprentices, no funding obtained or required etc. will be rejected or dismissed by the Employment Tribunal.

If you require more time to lodge an appeal please contact the ITA & Levy Compliance Team at CITB by email at levycompliance-legal@citb.co.uk or in writing to:

Levy Compliance Team
CITB
4 Cyrus Way
Hampton
Peterborough
PE7 8HP.

An appeal lodged and accepted by an Employment Tribunal will suspend any payments of Levy until the determination of the appeal, so please inform us once an appeal has been lodged.

Not sure you should be registered?

If you think your business should not be registered, you can ask for a Levy registration review. CITB will look at the information you provide and decide if you should be on the CITB register.

Complete the Levy registration review form.

Levy legislation

CITB is required under the Industrial Training Act 1982 to raise a collect a Levy to fund its legal purpose of encouraging training in the construction industry. The power to raise the Levy and the way in which its calculated (including Levy rates and exemption thresholds) is contained in The Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order (known as a Levy Order). It also requires the Levy to be raised on employers, wholly or mainly engaged in construction industry activities, which are then defined in The Industrial Training (Construction Board) Order 1964 (Amendment) Order 1992 (known as the Scope Order).

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