Skills

Difficulties sourcing labour – following a drop in the number of EU-born workers in the UK – are likely to push up rates by at least 10 per cent, recruiters have warned. A decline in the number of EU-born workers in the UK construction industry, combined with a surge in…

Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Wates are among contractors to sign up to a scheme that will look to help increase employment opportunities for young black men. The year-long programme led by consultancy The Equal Group, with backing from the Greater London Authority (GLA), will feature workshops, one-to-one sessions, supply…

The number of European Union-born workers in the UK construction industry dropped by more than a quarter in 12 months. In the third quarter of 2020, there were 127,000 EU-born workers in the industry, down from 176,000 recorded in the same period in 2019. The 28 per cent drop was…

New immigration rules will be “extremely challenging for construction”, Build UK has warned. The trade association said it is making “strong representations” to the Home Office about the issues contractors are facing with the new points-based immigration system that will affect the employment of migrant workers from 1 January. The…

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) wants all construction industry skills cards to use smart technology by 31 March 2022. In an update to its industry-card-schemes recommendation, the CLC said that by spring next year all card schemes “must use smart technology which has the capability to electronically check agreed information…

Sizewell C can play a big role in the government’s levelling-up agenda, EDF’s director of funding for the project has insisted. Julia Pyke told the Construction News Summit that the multi-billion-pound project could make a “really huge contribution” to the policy of improving the lives of people outside of London.…

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has agreed to sell its National Construction College facility in Birmingham to Walsall College. The King’s Norton building, land and business are to be sold to the further education provider with 17 staff transferring across to the new employer. The move is part of…

The number of EU-born construction workers in London has halved in two years. Since the third quarter of 2018, the London construction market has seen the number of EU-born workers drop from 115,000 to 53,000 – a fall of 54 per cent. This is greater than the overall fall in…

Construction minister Nadhim Zahawi has said that firms with more diverse boardrooms make more money. Speaking at an Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) online event, Zahawi welcomed a report written by the group that stressed the “importance of diversity and difference” for business, and called for its members to…

A campaign calling for all construction companies to have to earn a licence in order to trade has been scrapped amid the coronavirus crisis. Last year, organisations including the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), British Property Federation (BPF), Construction Products Association and others set up a taskforce chaired by ex-BPF…