30,000 Additional Bricklayers Urgently Needed, Say Housebuilders

According to industry groups, Britain is in need of over 30,000 additional bricklayers in order to meet the Government’s ambitious home building target.

The construction industry has been greatly affected by the return of tens of thousands of migrant workers to their home countries during the pandemic, with many of them choosing not to come back to the UK.

In an attempt to fill this gap, the Home Office extended the Shortage Occupation List in July, allowing more bricklayers, tilers, and roofers to obtain UK work visas.

However, this solution has not fully resolved the problem. The Home Builders Federation estimates that for every 10,000 homes built, 2,500 bricklayers are required.

This means that around 75,000 additional bricklayers are needed to achieve the Government’s goal of building 300,000 new homes annually by 2025.

Currently, there are only 42,000 bricklayers working in the home building sector, which means an additional 33,000 bricklayers are now required.

According to the Construction Industry Training Board, the average salary for bricklayers in the UK is £37,500.

While the measures taken by the Home Office have been welcomed by the industry, concerns have been raised that Britain is not adequately addressing the broader issues related to recruiting and training bricklayers.

Paul Westhead, the development director at One Heritage Group, a London-listed residential property developer focused on the North of England, stated, “If the Government is ever going to meet its annual target of building 300,000 new homes, something radical needs to happen to reverse the current trend.”

He further added, “Even with these measures, it could take over a decade to train enough domestic tradespeople to meet the demand. Policies that make it easier for foreign tradespeople to work in the UK might help alleviate the shortage in the short term, but they will not address the larger problem.”

Recruiting in the industry is also facing challenges due to an aging workforce, with one in five builders being over 50 according to the National Federation of Builders (NFB).

Rico Wojtulewicz, the head of housing and planning policy at the NFB, suggested that implementing a ‘one for one’ visa system, where a company hiring a foreign worker must also train

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