There is now a serious scarcity of construction workers in the United Kingdom (UK), especially carpenters, roofers, and bricklayers. For homeowners looking for building services, this lack is causing serious delays. As to Fix Radio’s nationwide construction audit, concerning 415,000 individuals have experienced waiting more than a year to find a builder since 2021. There is a scarcity in many different trades; 301,000 households are waiting a year for heating engineers and plumbers, 294,000 for roofers, and 274,000 for carpenters.
According to Daily Mail UK, clients have had to wait more than three months on average for a bricklayer during the previous three years, while landscapers, painters, and decorators have left clients waiting more than two and a half months. Experts in the field stress how seriously this skills gap affects large-scale initiatives, such as the ongoing construction of the Co-op Live stadium in Manchester. By 2027, 225,000 more skilled professionals will be needed to fulfill the increasing demand. The economic implications are substantial; estimates suggest that the skills gap may cause the UK to lose out on £98 billion in growth by 2030.
The problem is made worse by the aging workforce; now, one-fifth of construction workers are over 50, and a third intend to retire by 2030. Nearly a million tradespeople are expected to retire in the next ten years, according to the Construction Skills Network of the Construction Industry Training Board. Although migrant labor has somewhat mitigated shortages, more British workers urgently need to be trained. To address the shortfall, the Home Office put carpenters, plasterers, roofers, and bricklayers to its list of shortage occupations last year. The issue is being addressed by UK government initiatives, which include sponsoring 100,000 apprenticeships and discouraging non-vocational university degrees. Throughout their campaigns for the general election, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party have made building a top priority. Labour has proposed new towns, and Rishi Sunak has promised
Fix Radio’s Clive Holland emphasized the need for additional builders while issuing a warning that there could be dire repercussions if the skills gap is not addressed in order to alleviate the housing problem. Two-thirds of Britons believed that they were not sufficiently encouraged to pursue trades in school, according to a Fix Radio survey, and 18% of parents discouraged their children from going into construction because they thought the pay would be low.
