As we head down the M62 to UKREiiF in Leeds, I have been reflecting on the Government’s pledge of 2024 to deliver 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament – one of the most ambitious housing targets set in a generation.
The ambition is welcome. However, much of the national conversation has focused on planning reform, funding, land release and policy announcements. Far less attention has been given to the industry’s biggest constraint: the people needed to design, engineer and deliver those homes.
The UK construction workforce is now estimated at around 2.05 million people – its lowest level for almost 24 years. Yet achieving 1.5 million homes would require a step change in delivery capacity at precisely the moment the workforce is shrinking.
Industry statistics make difficult reading. BCIS has reported that the construction workforce has reduced by more than 300,000 people over the last two decades. Other forecasts suggest the sector could lose a further 750,000 workers over the next 10 years through retirement and attrition.
To maintain current capacity alone, the industry is estimated to require around 75,000 new recruits annually. To increase delivery meaningfully, that figure is likely to exceed 100,000 workers per year.
Civil and structural engineering sits directly at the centre of this challenge. These are the professions that turn planning permissions into real homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
At the same time, the barriers to entering the profession have grown significantly. A four-year engineering degree can now leave students with debts approaching £89,000, narrowing the talent pipeline at exactly the wrong time.
The reality is simple. Even where land is unlocked and planning approval secured, projects still require engineers, technicians, surveyors, modellers, geotechnical specialists and site supervisors to take schemes forward. Without sufficient skilled people, projects slow down, costs rise and investor confidence weakens.
After more than four decades in the industry, what feels different today is not the scale of housing demand – that has existed for years – but the scale of the skills challenge.
The generation of engineers that entered the profession in the 1980s is now retiring faster than it is being replaced.
We cannot rely solely on importing skills. We must develop the next generation here through apprenticeships, technical education, graduate training and real industry experience.
That is why Sutcliffe has committed to training forty new engineers over the next decade. We continue to work closely with Liverpool John Moores University and The City of Liverpool College to support apprenticeship and graduate pathways into the profession.
However, forty engineers from one firm is a contribution – not the solution.
The wider industry, government and education sector all need to think longer term about workforce development.
There are practical measures that would help:
- expanding degree apprenticeships
- reducing financial barriers into engineering
- supporting technical colleges
- reforming procurement so training and social value commitments carry real weight
- creating greater flexibility for employers to provide early industry experience
- Government funding to reduce the burden of employing apprentices in the first 12 months particularly those who are unemployed
These issues may not generate the headlines that planning reform does, but they are fundamental to whether the housing target can ever be achieved.
The honest answer is that delivering 1.5 million homes within this Parliament looks highly challenging unless we address the workforce crisis alongside the housing shortage itself.
That is the conversation the industry needs to have at UKREiiF – and beyond.
Sean Keyes
CEO, Sutcliffe Engineers
