A £600m plan to train up to 60,000 bricklayers, electricians and carpenters has been unveiled by the Chancellor ahead of the Spring Statement.
Rachel Reeves says the four-year scheme will get young people into “well-paid, high-skilled” construction jobs by funding additional placements, establishing Technical Excellence Colleges, and launching new foundation apprenticeships among other measures.
The move, announced over the weekend, is part of the government’s plan to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, which has been met by concerns in the building industry about a shortage of skilled workers to hit this ambitious target.
Over the previous five years, the country built around one million homes.
The government introduced the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, to streamline planning committees and fast-track building work earlier this month.
The announcement also comes ahead of Wednesday’s Spring Statement, where Reeves is expected to likely to set out spending cuts, tax changes and new measures in a bid to boost UK growth as she bids to raise £10bn to bolster the government’s headroom for day-to-day spending.
Reeves says: “We are determined to get Britain building again, that’s why we are taking on the blockers to build 1.5 million new homes and rebuild our roads, rail and energy infrastructure.
“But none of this is possible without the engineers, brickies, sparkies, and chippies to actually get the work done, which we are facing a massive shortage of.
“We’ve overhauled the planning system that is holding this country back, now we are gripping the lack of skilled construction workers, delivering on our plan for change to boost jobs and growth for working people.”
Barratt Redrow deputy chief executive Steven Boyes added: “Construction faces a long-standing skills shortage at a time when we are challenging ourselves to build even more much-needed new homes across the country.
“I started out as a trainee on a Barratt Homes’ construction site 47 years ago, and so welcome this significant, long-term investment in skills, which will create real opportunities for people of all backgrounds to build a successful career in homebuilding.”
However, the Federation of Master Builders pointed to official figures released on Thursday, which showed that the pipeline of new housebuilding projects is not coming through, particularly for smaller building firms.
District planning authorities granted 271,600 decisions last year, down 7% from a year ago, according to the housing department.
Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry said: “It is deeply disappointing to see the number of planning applications granted for developments of nine or fewer units in 2024 were down significantly on the previous year, by almost 2,000.
“This means a mere 9% of homes delivered will be from the nation’s small local house builders – an increasingly dwindling part of the sector.
“The housing minister [Angela Rayner] has been clear about the need to diversify the housing market away from a reliance on a small number of high-volume builders, yet today’s figures show more needs to be done.”
