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The Labour government’s pledge to build 1.5mn homes in England over the next five years risks being stymied by a shortfall of more than 150,000 skilled construction workers, the building industry’s training body has warned.
Tim Balcon, chief executive of the Construction Industry Training Board, said new planning laws, set out in the King’s Speech, that aim to increase the number of new homes would fail without a step-change in skills training.
“We simply do not have enough workers in the construction industry right now,” he said, adding that up to 152,000 extra workers would be needed under Labour’s housebuilding proposals, according to Citb research.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “get Britain building again” after decades during which successive Conservative and Labour administrations failed to meet their housing targets.
Ministers will also this month unveil big changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which will reintroduce compulsory housing targets for councils that were scrapped under the last Tory government.
The demand for additional workers in trades such as bricklaying, joinery and plumbing comes after the construction industry suffered a net loss of 10,000 in 2023 from a total workforce of 2.67mn, according to the Citb.
The labour shortages span infrastructure projects, with large schemes and utilities companies including Hinkley Point C, National Grid and Thames Water warning in recent months of their impact on cost and future delivery.
In May, the Citb estimated the construction sector would require 251,500 additional workers to meet existing anticipated demand in the five years to 2028 — even without Labour’s stringent 1.5mn homes target.
Among the factors driving the net loss are an ageing workforce and changes to UK immigration rules as a result of Brexit, which led to a steady decline in the numbers of immigrant construction workers.
A report last year by the Citb found UK visa costs for skilled construction workers were typically higher than in comparable countries such as Germany and Canada, which targeted migrant workers with low-cost, simplified visa schemes.
But Labour in its election manifesto ruled out migration as a route to address industry skill shortages, pledging to “end the long-term reliance on overseas workers” in construction by bringing in “workforce and training plans” to boost homegrown headcount.
Instead, Starmer’s party has said it will create a new body, Skills England, to improve training, as well as reforming the apprenticeship levy paid by employers.
The proposed changes would allow bosses to spend half their levy pot on shorter, modular courses to fill skills gaps identified by industry, rather than spending it all on fully fledged apprenticeships as at present.
Balcon said it was “essential” that the new growth and skills levy drove “up construction apprenticeship numbers that have declined under the apprenticeship levy”.
Still, Steve Turner, executive director at the Home Builders Federation, an industry group, said “tens of thousands of people will need to be recruited and trained” to realise Labour’s goals, including homegrown skills and more access to foreign labour.
Labour has set a target of an average of 300,000 new homes a year over this parliament — an increase of 80,000 a year compared with the average of 210,000 over the previous five years.
The HBF said every extra 10,000 homes built annually would require the industry workforce to grow by 30,000, including 2,500 bricklayers, 1,000 carpenters and other skilled trades.
The government said it would work with industry to build up the construction workforce.
“We will work in partnership with councils, housing associations and the wider sector to ensure we hit our ambitious target and build the homes Britain needs,” it added.
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