Clive Holland, host of The Clive Holland Show on Fix Radio, has provided his insight on the government’s construction reforms that were announced in the Chancellor’s Spring Statement.
The government unveiled its £625m plan to train 60,000 new construction workers over four years, aiming to support its target of building 1.5m homes by 2029. The initiative includes funding for apprenticeships, technical colleges and skills bootcamps to address labour shortages in the sector.
Clive said that these measures don’t come close to solving Britain’s skills crisis, with the government already reducing its target of building 1.3m homes.
Clive stated: “The government’s plan to train 60,000 new construction workers is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t come close to solving Britain’s skills crisis. Fix Radio’s own National Construction Audit shows that nearly half a million Brits have already faced year-long waits for a builder or handyman, while a further 300,000 have waited just as long for a roofer. The industry is also already short-staffed, and with one in five tradespeople over 50 and a third of the workforce set to leave by 2030, the gap is only going to grow. We need 225,000 extra workers by 2027 just to meet current demand – 60,000 barely makes a dent.
“Decades of neglect have led us here. Schools have pushed universities over trade careers and it’s had a lasting impact – 65% of Brits say they were never encouraged to enter the trades, and apprenticeship numbers are plummeting. Just 1% of 16-17-year-olds took T-Levels in 2022, and completed apprenticeships have fallen from 12,420 in 2018 to just 7,700 in 2022. With demand for housing growing and major infrastructure projects in the pipeline, Britain is staring down a shortfall of 250,000 tradespeople, putting £98 billion of economic growth at risk.
“If the government is serious about hitting its 1.5m homes target, though it has admitted that it’s more likely to be 1.3m, it needs to stop treating construction as an afterthought. That means real investment in apprenticeships, better incentives for young people to join the trades, and a strategy to keep skilled workers in the industry. The workforce isn’t just shrinking – it’s ageing, and unless we make construction an attractive career, the crisis will deepen.”
