UK Construction: Skills Shortage Restricting Recovery

A skills shortage in the construction sector as house building soars is holding back its recovery.

The Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found in its first quarter construction sector survey that 41% of firms were seeing labour shortages.

But it was a lack of money that was the biggest hindrance, with 58% reporting that financial constraints were preventing more work taking place.

Because of the healing housing market, as mortgages are made cheaper thanks in part to the government's Help to Buy scheme, house prices are on the rise.

This has led builders to chase the potential profits by sharply increasing their residential construction work.

The sudden uptick in work has put pressure on the supply side, which was decimated by the construction sector's collapse in output following the financial crisis.

Brick stocks are at historic lows and there is a dearth in skilled workers across the construction trade.

"Clearly what we are seeing as the recovery takes shape, is that the impact of skills shortages in parts of the country where companies failed to invest in attracting new talent or in the training of existing employees at the height of the economic downturn," said Alan Muse, director of built environment at Rics.

"Now that the industry is experiencing an upturn in workload that is broadening out across the whole of the UK, it must ensure it has the capability to capitalise on these opportunities."