We speak to thousands of construction contractors and companies up and down the UK every day, and they’re consistently telling us that they need more tradespeople to assist with the demands of the construction market this year.

Recently the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) announced skills shortages in various trades. Commenting on the skills shortage the CITB has suggested that whilst re-recruiting ex-tradespeople would play a role in getting the industry going again, their focus will be to attract the next generation of tradespeople into education.


Whilst it’s vital that we get more people into the industry, we must now reach out to those ex-construction workers to encourage them back into the industry, explaining the differences in the construction now and the construction industry pre-crisis.


In a time where the housing industry is picking up again, we need to ensure we've got the supply of houses to achieve the government’s goals and meet the nation’s housing. Ultimately, if there’s a lack of supply we’ll experience the kind of boom that led to the last recession, so we need to build houses. Education is great for the future of our industry, but the learners of today aren’t going to be building the houses people want to buy in a few months’ time.


As members of the construction industry, we've got to evangelise and spread the word to let our ex-colleagues from the industry know it’s time to get back into construction. They need to be shown that the industry is more secure than ever before and that the recovery has stronger foundations than the boom before the recession.