Build Magazine August 2015

Build Magazine 26 he UK wide construction industry skills shortage is affecting all sections of the industry, with projects often coming in over budget or being delayed thanks to the year-by-year reduction of skilled workers en- tering the industry and an aging population leading to many skilled workers retiring as the demand for houses increases. Housing is the sector seeing the most urgent de- mand, and local councils have recently warned that the shortage could derail the Government’s plans to build 275,000 new affordable homes by 2020. New analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, reveals a growing mismatch between the construction industry’s increasing demand for skills and a falling number of people gaining construction qualifications. While the construction industry’s forecasted annual recruitment need is up 54% from 2013, there are 10,000 fewer construction qualifications being award- ed by colleges, apprenticeships and universities. The number of people gaining construction skills has been falling for some time. There were 58% fewer completed construction apprenticeships last year than in 2009. Meanwhile, industry has increasingly struggled to fill vacancies. A worrying 56% of skilled trade construction vacancies are hard to fill, up from 46% in 2011 and almost triple the proportion of skilled hard to fill vacancies across the economy as a whole. As the economy continues to improve, demand continues to rise, with private contrac- tors often seeing profit margins reducing or passing on the cost directly to the consumer, which could impact on inflation over the com- ing years if the skills shortage is not addressed. Recent figures released by Ionic Recruit- ment, a specialist recruitment consultancy within construction, show that skilled oper- ative have seen their salaries sore over the past year. Quantity Surveyors had a 45% increase in salary since 2014. Temporary workers have also had pay hikes, with painters and decorators seeing a 46% rise, ground workers 23% and joiners 15%. Martyn Makinson, Managing Director of Ionic Recruitment, commented on this surprising development: “Some may predict that perma- nent workers see bigger increases in wages as temporary workers tend to barter more to secure contracts. Our figures show that, actually, the wage increases are pretty similar across both, which is good news in general for the construction sector as a whole.” Tim Stringer, Director of Integral Build, believes that the key reason for the shortage is that the industry is not appealing enough to young people. The recession led to staff leaving the industry to retrain and other staff have retired or moved into management roles within the industry, whilst fewer and fewer are entering into the industry from the bottom. How the Skills Shortage is Affecting Construction The number of skilled workers in the construction industry is dropping, threatening Government housebuilding pledge as well as private projects. T