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Government housing ambitions will fail without post-Brexit construction plan, say leaders
Government plans to increase housebuilding will fail unless it sorts out the post-Brexit status of construction workers from the European Union, industry leaders have warned.
The warning has come from seven construction industry bodies in a Construction Industry Brexit Manifesto.
They said: “The construction industry should be viewed by the government as a strategic industry, as without it ministers will be unable to meet their ambitious plans for the delivery of new homes and infrastructure projects.”
The manifesto said construction represented 10% of UK employment and 12.6% of its workers were born outside the UK, with 5.7% coming from the eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004.
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But EU nationals made up half the industry workforce in the pressured area of London and the South East, and “given the severity of the skills shortages we already face, the retention of these workers is of critical concern to the construction industry”.
The manifesto called on ministers to make it clear that EU workers already here would face no serious impediments to gaining settled status, and transitional arrangements should be generous enough to continue to attract new workers.
Training people in skilled trades took a minimum of two to three years, and took seven years for professional construction roles.
The manifesto warned: “Given the extent of the current skills shortage and record high employment levels, in the short to medium term it will not be possible to recruit the people we need without ongoing access to significant levels of EU migrant labour.”
Manifesto signatories included the Home Builders Federation, the Federation of Master Builders and bodies representing contractors, civil engineering, product manufacturers and consulting engineers.
