Time to listen to construction industry experts if we’re to truly “get Britain building”
The construction industry stands ready to support the new government with its housing and infrastructure plans, but we need stability and a long-term strategy.
One of the first hurdles for the new Labour government is to ensure consistency and longevity in policymaking and its communications with the wider construction industry.
Matthew Pennycook MP is now the fifteenth housing minister in the last 10 years. The housing minister position has been consistently chopped and changed in recent years, and this has led to inconsistent policymaking and delivery, as well as uncertainty in the sector. This constant change has also meant that professional and trade bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Building, must restart engagement and brief the new minister on the challenges faced by the sector, with each one having differing opinions about what issues should be addressed first and how to go about it.
Part of the solution for the new Labour government is to ensure there is longevity in the housing minister appointment. This will showcase to industry that the built environment is a valued social and economic driver. It will instil confidence in the sector to deliver on the Labour government’s manifesto aims, which include building 1.5m homes over this parliament (2024-29), reforming the planning system, delivering a Warm Homes Plan to upgrade the energy efficiency of 5m homes, and developing a national industrial strategy to drive economic growth.
But to be successful, the new government must also listen to the challenges faced by the sector.
The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves MP, has already promised to “get Britain building again” by bringing back compulsory housebuilding targets as part of a wide-ranging plan to reboot the UK economy. While we welcome the aspirations to kick-start construction activity, we must be realistic that there are significant issues with the supply of skilled workers to deliver.
The Chancellor also announced that additional planning officers will be recruited to speed up the planning process. However, this is only a small part of the construction process, which covers planning, design, construction and post-occupancy.
Focusing primarily on the construction phase, data from the Construction Industry Training Board indicates the number of construction workers in the UK has fallen by 14 per cent to 2.1m since 2019. There are several reasons for this, including many workers opting to return to their home countries after Brexit, the ageing profile of the workforce, and simply the lack of new entrants into the sector.
Significant investment in workforce capacity will be required from day one to kickstart activity in the housing market, but even then, it will fall significantly short of the government’s housebuilding target of 300,000 net additional homes over the next five years.
There is also the wider challenge to build quality homes with quality infrastructure such as schools and transport to make these new sites desirable. In our research examining the new-build housing market carried out in 2023, we found that poor workmanship, structural issues, and lack of infrastructure were three of the most critical concerns for people when considering purchasing a new-build home.
Finally, if we are to deal with the supply side of labour issues seriously, we must educate school leaders, teachers, parents and careers advisers about what the construction industry offers. The industry is unfortunately still seen as one of last resort for those who are less academically gifted than their peers. Construction is a fast-paced and challenging industry that has a number of well-paid trade and professional roles, and more progress can be made in selling the opportunities in the industry to our younger generations.
These are just some of the issues the new housing minister and Labour government will need to get to grips with from day one. The construction industry does not need more reports on the problems, but solutions, stability, and long-term policymaking.
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