The Labour Party has made housebuilding a central part of their plans to revive the nation, pledging 1.5 million homes should they win the next general election. However, the shrinking pool of skilled tradespeople is proving these targets to be near-impossible. Reports revealed that the construction industry’s workforce is smaller than it was in 2007, with the number of workers standing at an estimated 2.3 million as of June. Construction expert and broadcaster of Fix Radio – the UK’s only national radio station dedicated to builders and the trades – Clive Holland, argues that widespread neglect shown towards construction has sparked a litany of crises that risk the survival of the industry.

The construction industry is also ageing, with government data revealing the majority of work done by those over 50 has grown from 25% in 2007 to 33% in 2021. Exacerbating the national skills crisis, the ONS also unveiled that roughly one in five UK-born construction workers were over 55 in 2011 meaning they now will have reached retirement age. As the number of apprentices under the age of 19 has fallen by half since 2016/17, Fix Radio reinforces the importance of acquiring new talent to tackle the growing skills deficit gap in the sector and ease the pressure on the existing workers. The need to support sole traders and small businesses amidst the housing demand is further reinforced in Fix Radio’s nationally representative research which has revealed nearly one in three construction firms are currently on the cusp of collapse.

Clive Holland, argues that widespread neglect shown towards construction has sparked a litany of crises that risk the survival of the industry.
“Keir Starmer’s promise of building 1.5 million homes has made headlines because it is what Britain desperately needs. But should the Labour leader come to power at the next general election, he will quickly discover how impossible this is to deliver — unless his party tackles some serious issues in the construction industry.

“To keep up with current construction demand alone, it is estimated that Britain needs an extra 225,000 tradespeople by 2027. This is before we account for new homebuilding pledges. On top of this, our industry is losing record numbers of colleagues, with nowhere near enough new recruits entering the trade. Data from the Department for Education has revealed that the number of completed construction apprenticeships in England fell from 12,420 in 2018 to 7,700 in 2022. Another alarming stat: 17,500 people apply for electrician apprenticeships every year, yet only 2,500 pass their course, while an estimated 8,000 electricians leave the industry each year.

“Since the pandemic, a lot of admin has been done digitally and unfortunately this has taken its toll on housing planning. Under the current rules, it takes an average of five years for a standard housing development to go through the planning system. And as we are unable to go into planning offices and speak with someone directly, the whole process has become a lot slower.