Desperate shortage of Brit builders ‘risks leaving UK hooked on high migration’ to hit Labour target to build 1.5m homes
THE Government’s target to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years risks leaving the UK hooked on high migration, experts have warned.
Sir Keir Starmer last week vowed to go on an ambitious housebuilding frenzy — meaning the construction of around 900 a day for half a decade — to give families the “security” of their own home.
But politicians and construction bosses warned the worthy aim risks turning into a humiliating flop because the UK has failed to train enough homegrown builders.
The building industry says it is in “freefall” and needs another 300,000 workers over the next five years just to keep up with demand.
And a woeful failure to train enough brickies, electricians and carpenters has left the UK reliant on foreign migrants at our building sites.
Celebrity builder Ian Hodgkinson — who appears on hit TV show DIY SOS — said the target cannot be hit without bringing in more foreign workers.
READ MORE ON HOME BUILDING
He said the pledge is “teetering on the edge of disaster” and immediate action is needed to stop the housing crisis spiralling further out of control.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, warned that No 10 must “avoid reaching for high immigration to hit these construction targets”.
Reform Party leader Nigel Farage said the housing crisis is caused by sky-high migration and demanded the “madness” of hiring brickies abroad to end.
Currently, the UK is only on track to build around one million new homes over five years.
Earlier this year, the Construction and Industry Training Board estimated that another 250,000 builders were needed in the next four years just to keep up with demand.
The Home Builders Federation estimates that an extra 300,000 will be needed to hit the Government’s target.
This would include 95,000 bricklayers, 37,000 carpenters and 15,000 plasterers.
Yet they also warned Brits on vocational construction courses are not getting the skills they need and often not going into the building trade at all.
Building firms are hiring foreign workers instead. This is fuelling sky-high net migration — which stood at 728,000 in the year ending in June.
A long list of construction jobs are on the shortage occupation list, meaning bosses can hire from abroad.
This includes bricklayers, welders, stonemasons, roofers, carpenters, joiners and other construction workers.
Some 12,700 construction workers applied for visas to the UK between January 2021 and September 2024, according to the Home Office.
There is no limit to how many “dependent” family members they can bring with them.
But an estimated 120,000 foreign builders went home during the pandemic, leaving construction firms desperately short-staffed.
The big building companies are only too happy to pay for foreign labour from abroad
Nigel Farage
Mr Hodgkinson said there is no way the 1.5 million target would be hit without more foreign workers. He said: “Training new workers takes time — years, not months.
“Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on housing targets, and construction companies are struggling to keep up with demand. The maths simply doesn’t add up: fewer workers, more houses, and no realistic solution to bridge the gap.”
Britain is also facing a shortage of building supplies, he warned.
Building 1.5 million homes will mean getting around six billion bricks, 20 million tons of concrete and five million tons of timber.
Writing in The Sun on Sunday, Mr Farage says hiring foreign workers will backfire because it fuels migration and makes it harder for Brits to find a home.
He says: “The big building companies are only too happy to pay for foreign labour from abroad.
Not the answer
“The reason is very simple indeed. They are just cheaper. But that means the immigration numbers go up, which means an even higher demand for housing. This takes us straight back to square one. This madness has got to end.”
Tory frontbencher Mr Philp also warned immigration is not the answer.
He said: “The British people overwhelmingly believe — and I agree — that immigration is far, far too high.
“Importing workers to build new homes will actually make the housing crisis worse as they have to live somewhere themselves.”
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Housing minister Matthew Pennycook yesterday vowed that Britain would not rely on foreign workers to hit the building target. He said Britain must “do more to upskill our own workforce” and promised to ramp up apprenticeships.
The Government has announced another 5,000 construction apprenticeships a year.
It's time to get teens building
By Nigel Farage, Leader of Reform
THE Prime Minister has reiterated his determination to build 1,500,000 homes over the next five years — and to do so by whatever means necessary.
If he has to rip up the planning rules he says that he will. The country desperately needs more houses as there is not only a shortage but the problem of affordability.
More houses in theory should mean cheaper houses. But how on earth do you get to build them all? What he did not say — and what so few in our public life dare to mention — is the real reason behind this crisis.
It is of course mass immigration — on a scale we have never seen before in this country.
We are living through a population explosion which means we have to build one new home every two minutes just to keep up.
It is a truly frightening statistic.
To achieve these targets we are going to need tens of thousands more construction workers on site up and down the country.
And this is where another problem begins. The big building companies are only too happy to pay for labour from abroad. The reason is very simple indeed. They are just cheaper.
But that means immigration numbers go up.
And that means an even higher demand for housing.
This takes us straight back to square one. This madness has got to end.
It is time our education system stopped pushing so many teenagers on to university to study social sciences.
In most cases these students leave with large debts around their neck and with no advancement in the work marketplace.
So I want to encourage our young people to become plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers. They will earn a far better living with a trade and a skill set for their future.
There are also vast numbers of young people on disability benefits — in many cases, through conditions such as depression.
To begin, we ought to try to inspire these young people so that they can do so much better for themselves and in their lives. Therefore they would be much happier and fulfilled.
British workers need to fill this new huge demand placed on our construction industry.
And if that means that the big building companies have to pay higher salaries and therefore make smaller profits then overall this has to be a good thing — not a bad thing.
Equally there are those living on disability benefits that are using this support as a lifestyle choice. If necessary we will have to force these people back to work.
And where better could they be used than on construction sites earning decent money?
The population explosion can and must be stopped.
We have to start saying British jobs for British workers — and actually mean it.