LONDON (FT) - An exodus of EU workers from the UK has left the British construction industry facing an acute shortage of laborers in some specialist trades and a looming crisis for the government’s “build back better” strategy.
Industry associations and construction companies said that unless urgent steps were taken, work on some projects might slow this summer.
The sector is already under pressure because of an ageing workforce, a shortage of key building materials such as timber and steel as well as Covid-19 restrictions, which require greater social distancing on sites.
The need to retrofit buildings to meet net zero emissions targets as well as big infrastructure projects such as the high-speed rail project HS2 are also increasing demand for workers. Since January 1, it has been harder for EU workers to enter the UK and the construction industry was one of the sectors most reliant on workers from the continent.
Suzannah Nichol, chief executive of Build UK, which represents the UK’s largest contractors and about 11,500 specialist businesses, said the group was planning to lobby the migration advisory committee, the independent public body that advises the government, for a “more nuanced approach to immigration”.
“There are already lots of pockets of shortages in specific trades and across particular spots in the UK,” she said.
Employment in the construction sector fell from 2.3m in 2017 to 2.1m at the end of 2020, representing a 4 per cent fall in UK-born workers and a 42 per cent fall in EU workers, according to the Office for National Statistics. More than 500,000 UK-born construction workers are expected to retire in the next 10 to 15 years.