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Construction in 'skills crisis'

Construction in 'skills crisis'

Monday, 12 May 2008 12:00 AM

The UK construction industry is facing a serious skills shortage that will worsen, according to a survey.

As Britain gears up for the 2012 Olympics, the biggest construction project since World War II, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) says that there is a lack of people with middle and senior management skills in the industry.

In addition, the majority of respondents said that their organisation relied on those migrant workers who are already in the UK - yet studies show many skilled migrants are leaving.

According to a report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research in April, about half of the people who moved to Britain from the countries that joined the European Union on May 1st 2004 have already left the UK and numbers of people arriving from countries such as Poland are falling.

The results showed that nine out of ten respondents believed the UK construction industry is currently suffering a skills shortage and 83 per cent of respondents felt that recruiting senior management was difficult, while 84 per cent regarded the recruitment of middle management as difficult in 2008.

This represents an increase of seven per cent and nine per cent respectively, compared to results from the CIOB's skills survey in 2006.

Michael Brown, CIOB deputy chief executive said, "Despite the current credit crunch, 70 per cent of the respondents believe that there will be an increase in construction demand in 2008 together with a worsening supply of middle and senior management.

"The shortage of professionals and managers within the industry is reflected in many parts of the world. Areas such as the Middle East will be a continuing draw for UK talent exacerbating the situation in the UK."

Sarah Routledge