Fears that’s Britain’s construction industry could lose more than 175,000 EU workers if the country does not retain access to the European single market after Brexit underline the importance of concentrating on quicker methods of homebuilding.
That’s the message from insulation specialist Actis, in the light of the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors which says the 8% drop in the sector’s workforce would have serious ramifications for infrastructure and construction projects.
It would also have a major impact on hitting housing targets, says Actis UK and Ireland sales director Mark Cooper. “The country is already struggling to keep up with demand for a number of reasons, including the less than ideal workforce size we have at the moment. Losing a large chunk of skilled people is clearly not going to help the situation,” he said.
He added that the RICS quarterly report showed that 20% of those surveyed said apprenticeship schemes aimed at encouraging more UK talent were not effective and that more needed to be done to educate industry about the benefits of apprenticeships. “As well as training up new blood, the industry must seriously give more attention to quicker, innovative though equally effective methods of construction, such as timber frame,” he explained.