Construction skills gap won’t hinder new homes target, says CLC co-chair 

The construction skills gap is not the “fundamental issue” hindering the government’s homebuilding ambitions, the co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has told MPs.

Mark Reynolds made the comment during a Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee evidence session with industry experts on construction’s capacity to meet the government’s homebuilding target.

“We think that the industry has the capacity to flex very quickly and grow to meet the demand,” he said, noting that construction employs around 2.2-2.3 million people and grew by 60,000 in 2024.

Instead, Reynolds, who is also executive chair at Mace, pointed to a combination of barriers within the system as the main difficulty.

“I don’t think skills is the issue,” Reynolds said. “It’s not just planning. There’s nutrient neutrality that needs to be resolved, and also compliance with the Building Safety Act. The Building Safety Regulator [BSR] needs more resources. Industry needs to step up and understand and comply with those issues. 

“The biggest challenge once you remove those blockers will be affordability, that is still a huge challenge.”

Despite the blockers, Reynolds told the panel of MPs that the homebuilding target should be increased to 4 million over the next decade. 

“I think we certainly should start [building] 1.5 million [homes] in this government term,” he said. “Realistically, we should be setting higher targets of 4m [new homes] in the next 10 years.

“I think that is eminently achievable.”

This article was originally published by Construction Management.

Main image credit: Parliamentlive.tv.