Deconstruction

It’s almost a decade since Mark Farmer took a deep dive into the issues holding back the construction sector in the UK, with the resulting review’s ‘Modernise or Die’ mantra still resonating.   While there has undoubtedly been some modernisation, sadly not all of it has hit the mark. One of the review’s key themes was the amount of fragmentation in the sector, something that has hampered routes to entry into the sector.   The introduction of the T-Level technical qualification was supposed to go some way to solving this by providing a standardised route into technical roles, but Farmer noted this in a recent piece in Construction News that this has yet to happen.   While numbers of applicants are up, as are pass rates, the scheme is still too marginalised to provide a consistent route in, says Farmer. It’s hard to disagree.   We know that there is a real need for new entrants into the sector, we have a government promising to put construction at the heart of its economic policy, and businesses bemoaning a lack of talent - so why aren’t we doing more to embed a consistent pathway for young talent?   You can read Mr Farmer’s thoughts below, it’s well worth your time: https://lnkd.in/ePw7fycF #ConstructionSkills #TLevels #SkillsGap

We think we know what causes the skills gap, but do we know what the skills gap causes?   - A lack of new homes for a growing population? - An inability to deliver vital infrastructure projects? - Rapidly rising demand, and costs, for existing labour? - Increasing pressure on the current workforce, causing flight to other sectors (retirement)?   If you answered all the above, congratulations, but there’s something worse.   Research from Reed Environment noted that, at our current rate of recruitment into the sector, we stand to miss our 2050 net zero target by a whopping 80 years.   Not that any of the issues mentioned at the top of this post aren’t important and painful, but the potential ramifications of us not doing our bit on net zero are potentially catastrophic.   The new Government has laudable plans to be a ‘green energy’ superpower by 2030, and has made the direct link between energy, the economy and the environment - but the detail is still a little patchy, for now.   We’ll offer the benefit of the doubt, given that Parliament hasn’t been recalled yet, but there’s a need for clarity and action. In the meantime, this recent piece in Building Magazine from James Fiske, CEO of the Building Cost Information Service Limited (BCIS), gives a great precis of the situation and what might be done to improve it.   The sector has a big job to do, let’s make sure that we do the right thing to attract the help that we’ll need to do it. https://lnkd.in/eXR2gU_q?

Among the students celebrating receiving the 400,000 vocational qualifications awarded today, is a small cohort of students that qualified with T-Levels in onsite construction and building services engineering. Just over 400 students are ready to join last year’s first ever cohort of T-Level students, and they are the first recipients of new qualifications that it is hoped will get students into the construction workforce more quickly over the coming years. The numbers may only be a small step, but these early adopters can point the way for the next generation over the coming years. The two subject areas each include separate courses: onsite construction T levels are bricklaying, painting and decorating, plastering and carpentry and joinery. The building services T levels are electrotechnical engineering, and plumbing and heating engineering. Well done to all the recipients!

Olympic and Paralympic Games are all about legacy. Well… they’re about sport, and legacy. This week the eyes of the world are on Paris as it hosts the summer Games, and while the focus will right be on the athletes, there’s also an ideal opportunity to inspire the future designers and constructors. Some of the venues for this year’s games, from the impossibly chic climbing wall and skatepark, to the temporary arenas at the Eiffel Tower and Les Invilades are simply stunning - as is the timeless Paris-Bercy arena. To paraphrase Mark Southgate, sometimes the best advertisement for the built environment is the built environment. These stunning structures, nestled at the heart of one of Europe’s most iconic and enduring cities, show what’s possible for those looking to create something that really captures the imagination. Yes, sport can excite and inspire, but so can construction. If we’re looking to create a legacy, we’d do well to remember that…

The King officially opened Parliament yesterday, and there was a lot in it for the construction sector, including legislation designed to: - Accelerate investment into clean energy, with £8.3 billion capitalised over the Parliament.  - Streamline the delivery process for critical infrastructure.  - Help the Government hit its 1.5 million new homes target by improving local planning decision making by modernising planning committees and boosting the capacity of local planning authorities. All important, but all potentially tough to deliver for a sector that already has a labour and skills shortage. Thankfully, the King's Speech also proposed legislation that paves the way for a new body called Skills England, referenced in the Labour manifesto, which seeks to “bring together businesses, providers, unions, mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and national government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce that England needs.” While this announcement seemed to slip under the radar during the election campaign, the team at Wonkhe believe Skills England will be a 100+ strong team that uses data to map out the national and regional skills requirements, before co-ordinating local plans that can prime the talent pool. In their words "It is a swiss army knife of an agency that will simultaneously support local initiatives, coordinate plans to meet national ambitions, and work with business on better planning" Construction industry leaders should be looking to get to the front of the queue to see what Skills England can offer to help rebuild a strong pipeline of new talent to feed the sector. The link to the full interesting blog is here: https://lnkd.in/eyH5KEXP 

The construction sector will be front and centre in today's #KingsSpeech, with the government looking to hit the ground running by putting #housebuilding at the centre of its plan to kick-start economic growth. However long term industry analysts know that there are multiple challenges, not least the skills shortage that has been a slow puncture on the construction sector for many years. How the Government and industry works to solve this long term problem will be crucial to the success of the overall ambitions. Noble Francis sets out the vital statistics to be found in the in-tray of the incoming Construction Minister. Following today's pageantry, some real hard work will need to begin.

It's fair to say that the series of manifestos produced by parties to support their election prospects have not been cheered in unison by leaders across the construction sector. Roofing Today Magazine reported that research conducted by NBS and Glenigan concluded that the overwhelming response of the construction industry was one of dissatisfaction. https://lnkd.in/ezYJdg8z Only 3% of respondents believed that the election coverage had addressed all the key issues impacting the sector. Commenting on the research, Russell Haworth, CEO UKI of Byggfakta Group, said: “The construction sector has struggled through the past few years, challenged by high interest rates, a housing market slowdown, and weak UK economic growth. This has been exacerbated by a lack of long-term policy vision, not helped by the fact that 25 construction ministers have served in post since the turn of the century. "I hope the next administration, whichever party it is, appoints MPs to these posts and keeps them there to ensure they understand the challenges facing the sector and maintain consistency to deliver crucial reforms, from digital transformation to addressing chronic labour shortages. “We urgently need to elevate these offices from junior positions to ones that attend the Cabinet, ensuring construction has a voice where it matters. For an industry that employs around 1 in 10 of the UK workforce and is such a major economic driver, construction is too often seen as an afterthought by political parties.” This is a point of view Deconstruction shares. As seen from our own research into the manifestos there is only a few mentions of the issues that face the sector across the party manifestos. A thriving, supported construction sector is central to the country returning to economic growth, so we hope more attention is paid to construction leaders once the election ticker tape is brushed away.

All this week Deconstruction is deconstructing the manifestos of the major political parties standing across the UK during the general election, to see how central to their plans the construction sector really is. Exit Music?   It is always hard for an incumbent Government to present a new pitch to the electorate, but the Conservative Party find themselves in a muddle of their own making in this manifesto.    There are pledges to build 1.6million homes over the course of the parliament, but this will require a rapid change in the housebuilding numbers they have overseen during their time in government.   There is a host of pledges to reform the planning system, with the penny finally dropping that this is causing the bottleneck in the construction sector, but pledges to invest in transport infrastructure may be hard to trust following Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 at a crucial point. They want to build on the successes of some local levelling up schemes by creating ‘locally led urban development corporations’ to develop brownfield regeneration sites, while making it easier for small builders to gain land to build on. There is also the pledge to invest £4.7bn in small projects in the North and Midlands, using money from the HS2 scheme. On the other hand, some policy proposals descend into confusing ideological hobby horses such as “Introduce reforms to outdated EU red tape to better protect nature while enabling the building of new homes, new prisons and new energy schemes.”    Within the Conservative manifesto infrastructure, housing and building is referred to fairly consistently, but the word construction is used once, while apprenticeships is mentioned six times. 

All this week Deconstruction is deconstructing the manifestos of the major political parties standing across the UK during the general election, to see how central to their plans the construction sector really is. Analysis: No alarm and no surprises   Don’t scare the horses has been the approach of Labour since Keir Starmer has become leader of the party, which has established a formidable lead in the polls, while frustrating media commentators looking for a hook.   The manifesto is this approach in writing, with a host of wide-ranging top down pledges, earnest ambitions to rewire the way the country works, and how it delivers for the people - without the detailed specifics.   The plan to launch a National Wealth Fund and create a National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority are forward thinking. However, restating the ambition to build more houses without acknowledging that the material resources and people power to deliver more units will be hard to come by, belies that the government in waiting have maybe not spoken to enough people in construction to grasp the size of the challenge they are setting.   Our analysis of how often construction is mentioned in the manifesto is telling, but there is a focus on young people and skills that suggests that the Labour Party recognises that the key to future delivery is preparing the next generation of workforce now.

All this week Deconstruction is deconstructing the manifestos of the major political parties standing across the UK during the general election, to see how central to their plans the construction sector really is. Electioneering Nigel Farage’s Our Contract With You document has an old fashioned approach to business and harks to the early 1980’s era of Thatcherism in full pomp.   The ethos is to slash everything – make the state smaller, remove red tape so businesses can act as they wish, abolish the Renter’s Reform Bill, and take a torch to the planning system. Also, scrap HS2 and any Net Zero objectives.    They pledge ‘fast track planning and tax incentives for development of brownfield sites’, and ‘loose fit’ planning policy for large residential developments with pre-approved guidelines. If you are a private landlord, it is an incredibly positive manifesto.   Basically, do what you want as long as it makes you money.   Each section of the Reform UK ‘contract’ has a suspicion of immigration at its core.    The housing crisis can be solved by ‘Prioritising local people and those who have paid into the system. Foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue. Not the front.’   10,000 new prison places must be built so the state has greater capacity for life prison sentences.   Farage has already been called out by the construction sector for stating that “we literally don’t need any” construction workers to come to the UK from abroad, and adding that “physical, manual labour” is unskilled. The pledge to introduce an Employer Immigration Tax will not win the party many friends in the boardrooms of businesses around the country.   Farage himself has acknowledged that Reform are not competing in this election for power, but to haul the agenda of the country towards ‘an election on immigration.’ This is his platform for the next five years, which might give Reform a chance to speak to the construction sector at some point.   The document feels like it has been written by men in their 50’s and 60’s who have done well for themselves but are still not happy with the way the world has changed around them. It doesn’t really touch on addressing the skills crisis or offer opportunities for young people, with only a single mention of construction and only two references to housebuilding.