Britain must recruit one worker every 77 seconds.
Annual 400,000 people deficit threatens the UK's housing and
infrastructure delivery.
British construction must recruit over 400,000 people each and
every year between now and 2021 - equivalent to one worker every
77 seconds - if it is to create the homes and infrastructure the
nation needs, according to the latest report from Arcadis.
Failure to address the skills gulf could even see the earnings
of some tradespeople sky-rocketing inside a generation, leading
to the rise of the MINTED workforce - the Most in Need Trades
Earning Double.
The Arcadis Talent Scale has been developed to measure the true
extent of the skills crisis across the infrastructure and house
building workforce. In house building alone, the study shows
that if the UK is to increase output to 270,000 new homes over
the next five years, it will need to employ in excess of 370,000
new people. Meanwhile, when it comes to meeting forecast
national infrastructure requirements, an additional 36,500
people will need to be employed every year.
When it comes to individual skills, the greatest need is for
carpenters and joiners, where demand accounts for nearly one
sixth of all national resource requirements. Plumbers,
Electricians, and Bricklayers are also in high demand,
particularly in the labour-intensive housebuilding sector.
Meanwhile, the report identifies a need for over 7,400 Civil
Engineers and 7,300 Quantity Surveyors.
London and the South East will need to employ more people than
any other part of the UK, accounting for nearly 30 percent of
total demand (110,000 people). With major national
infrastructure programmes such as HS2 and Crossrail 2 already in
the pipeline, it is expected that companies will need to draw
heavily on the common talent pool of transferable skills if
delivery targets are to be achieved.
Outside of London and the South East, the highest skills
requirement is in the East of England and the South West, where
more than 43,000 and 41,000 additional workers respectively are
needed to meet projected regional housing and infrastructure
requirements. At the bottom of the table is Northern Ireland,
where employment demand accounts for just 3 percent of the
national total.
New people needed each year to fulfil house building and
infrastructure needs 2016-2021 (an excerpt)
Carpenters & Joiners 60,409
Plumbers 46,827
Electricians 40,340
Painters 33,641
Construction Directors 26,403
Bricklayers 18,146
Program Managers 7,478
Civil Engineers 7,414
Quantity Surveyors 7,325
SE 55,440
Lon 54,556
East of Eng 43,052
SW 41,766
NW 37,976
Yorks & Humber 37,261 S
cot 35,932
West Mids 28,992
East Mids 29,074
Wales 17,874
NE 13,446
NI 12,127
Total 407,495
These figures are independent of the impact of any eventual
Brexit deal, which is likely to further increase the strain. In
the event of a 'hard' Brexit scenario - for instance, extending
the points-based system currently in place for non-EU migrants -
the number of EU construction workers entering the UK could fall
at the rate of attrition. If this were to play out, 215,000
fewer people from the EU would enter the infrastructure and
house building sectors between now and 2020, further
exacerbating the existing labour shortage.
James Bryce, Arcadis Director of Workforce Planning, explained:
"What we have is not a skills gap; it is a skills gulf. Systemic
underinvestment in the nation's workforce has contributed to a
reduction in UK productivity. Construction employment is already
down 15 percent on 2008 and, quite simply, if we don't have the
right people to build the homes and infrastructure we need, the
UK is going to struggle to maintain it's competitive position in
the global economy.
"However, overcoming a skills shortfall as vast as the one we
now face can't be achieved through education and technology
alone. Of course, we need to bring more new talent into the
industry but, in the short term, construction will also need to
look at those currently working in other industries and
dramatically improve its efficiency.
"On top of this, as part of any Brexit deal, the government can
help by looking to secure the rights of EU workers currently
operating in British construction, simplifying the visa system
and minimising the tax burden on workers and business. If this
fails to happen, many of the projects that the British
government have earmarked for economic stimulus could prove more
difficult and costly to resource. In the worst case scenario
these projects could fail to be delivered at all, reducing our
ability to grow the economy and limiting investment in the
industry."