An industry heavyweight will urge the government to replace the mantra “build, baby, build” with “skill, baby, skill” at the Labour Party Conference on Sunday.
New housing secretary Steve Reed has spoken bullishly to “leave no stone unturned” in delivering 1.5 million new homes this parliament, after replacing the outgoing Angela Rayner.
However, David Campbell, chief operating officer of the National House Building Council, will warn that what’s needed is significant and sustained expansion of the house-building workforce.
Speaking at The Big Construction Reception, he will say: “We welcome ‘build, baby, build,’ but we need to ‘skill, baby, skill’ to ensure we have the workforce needed to build 1.5 million homes.
“Without a significant increase in the workforce, scaling up the volume of quality new homes will be incredibly challenging.
“More than 250,000 extra construction workers will be needed by 2028 just to meet the current demand, let alone build more new homes. That’s why we must get moving now.
“You can’t create a skilled workforce overnight. At NHBC, we’re committed to being part of the solution.
“That’s why we’re heavily investing in practical, long-term training initiatives to help build the skilled workforce our industry urgently needs.”
NHBC has invested £100m in 12 new multi-skill training hubs across the UK. Each training hub will be roughly two-thirds the size of a football pitch and train 3,000 new apprentices each year, initially in the most needed trades.
The council’s first multi-skill training hub, based in Lichfield, was funded in partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), with land provided by Barratt Redrow.
Apprentices are currently being trained in needed trades like bricklaying, groundworks and site-carpentry.
Campbell will also welcome government initiatives like the £625m investment in construction skills, the creation of the construction skills mission board and the £3bn apprenticeship budget.
