A new report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has warned that without radical reforms, the construction industry risks falling short of the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes.
The scale of the challenge is amplified by demographic trends. More than one in three construction workers are now over 50, and the average age is on course to hit 46.4 by 2050.
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As well as an ageing workforce, the industry is also facing dwindling numbers of younger entrants.
There are 40% fewer 16 to 24 year-olds working in construction today compared to 2008 – a drop of more than 150,000.
Over the same period, the overall size of the construction workforce has contracted significantly, marking its lowest share of total UK employment in more than a century.
In the report, CSJ argues that the crisis stems from two systemic failings: a dysfunctional labour model and a broken education and training system.
Policy recommendations
To tackle the crisis, CSJ has outlined 26 recommendations, targeting government, industry and education sectors.
The proposals include fully implementing the accepted ITB review reforms, as well as overhauling the CITB levy “to make its use more flexible and better reflect the structure of the modern construction workforce”.
CSJ has also called for the re-introduction of the Resident Labour Market Test, requiring UK employers to advertise roles to domestic workers before offering them to applicants under a work visa scheme.
Under the proposals, the apprenticeship system would also be reformed, alongside the launch of a new technical GCSE option to help improve the attractiveness of construction as a career path.
Tackling the shortage of construction teachers in further education is also highlighted as a priority. Potential solutions include increasing bursaries for trainee teachers.
In addition, CSJ has recommended that government should introduce a Future Workforce Credit to incentivise employers to recruit and upskill 16 to 24 year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEET).
Industry response
The National Federation of Builders (NFB) has welcomed the report's recommendations for all stakeholders.
Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the NFB, said: “The CSJ [has] broken the mould when discussing the construction skills crisis.
"Instead of focusing purely on access to learning, they have understood that learners need teachers with strong industry experience to develop their skills, employers to take them on, and an industry which has a pipeline of work to sustain career progression.
“[Ensuring] firms have access to a pipeline of future work is also important. Eight in 10 construction apprentices are trained by SMEs, despite those firms struggling with work pipelines and project certainty for almost two decades.
"This is the main reason why the construction skills crisis continues to worsen.
“The right way to fix the skills crisis is, therefore, to unblock work pipelines for SMEs.
"When they had a fuller pipeline, building 40% of homes in the 1980s, they trained more bricklayers and carpenters per year than all construction apprentices today, where they build just 9% of homes.”
