The construction industry in the UK faces significant challenges, with pay insecurity, limited career paths, and inconsistent employment conditions driving skilled laborers out of the trade. These ongoing issues are a barrier to addressing the country’s growing housing needs, as outlined in recent expert opinions and stories from industry insiders.
Pay Insecurity and Lack of Benefits
Many skilled professionals, such as bricklayers, are leaving the construction industry due to rampant pay insecurity and lack of essential benefits. As Matthew Ord, a highly experienced bricklayer from Peterlee, County Durham, notes, most site-based bricklayers are self-employed subcontractors. This means no access to pensions, holiday pay, or sick pay. An injury or illness directly results in no income, making the job less viable as a long-term career choice. Furthermore, bricklayers’ wages have remained stagnant, or even decreased. By the time general payments from large contractors reach tradespeople, they are significantly reduced, reducing profitability for workers.
Ord emphasizes the need for systemic change. Solutions include ensuring that tradespeople receive fair pay directly, introducing proper benefits, and creating working conditions that reflect the skilled and physically demanding nature of construction.
Fragmented Career Paths and Training Shortfalls
Professor Stuart Green, a construction management expert at the University of Reading, highlights another major issue—the fragmented nature of the industry. Large construction firms often rely on layers of subcontracting that lead to varied, unclear employment terms. Workers on the same sites regularly have different conditions or none at all.
Despite this, career paths exist only in “sheltered pockets,” making training and development inconsistent. Small businesses, which often supply labor, are reluctant to invest in apprenticeships or direct employment because of high costs and competitive pressures. According to Green, policymakers must first address this fractured employment model to make the industry sustainable and appealing.
The Role of Experience Versus Qualifications
Another concern voiced by Mark Stringer, a self-employed tradesman with over 30 years of experience, is the increasing emphasis on formal qualifications. While Stringer obtained a City & Guilds in carpentry in 1997 and has diversified his skills over the decades, he now faces policy changes requiring him to invest significantly to maintain his construction certifications. Stringer argues that skill, honed through years of hands-on experience, is just as crucial as formal qualifications, and excessive red tape could dissuade experienced workers from staying in the trade.
Building a Sustainable Construction Workforce
To achieve ambitious housing goals and modernize the industry, experts and tradespeople alike stress the importance of creating a more stable, attractive, and fair working environment. Recommendations include:
- Providing fair wages and benefits directly to workers
- Streamlining career progression and training opportunities
- Recognizing both experience and formal qualifications equivalently
- Reforming the subcontracting model to reduce labor insecurity
By addressing these issues, the construction industry can better retain skilled workers and attract new talent, ensuring progress toward the UK’s housing and infrastructure goals.
