Migrant labour needed to solve UK housing crisis, construction industry warns
Migrant labour needed to solve UK housing crisis, construction industry warns
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The National Federation of Builders say Labour’s goals are unachievable because there is a shortage of more than 200,000 construction workers in UK. The construction industry wants a special visa to be created to import enough workers it says are critical to solving the housing crisis as the government grapples with quelling migration.
![[The Home Builders Federation say skills shortages, an ageing workforce, and Brexit were among the key issues affecting the sector]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/28/15/01JHCSD6CDVYJPJ5AKK00XM3YG.jpg)
The Labour government has pledged to build more than 1.5million new homes in the UK by the end of Parliament, however, concerns within the construction industry over manpower have dampened Sir Keir Starmer’s plans. The National Federation of Builders (NFB) said Labour’s goals are unachievable because there is a shortage of more than 200,000 construction workers in the UK, as the opposition launched a fresh attack on the government over net migration driving population growth.
The trade association has proposed a three-to-five-year construction visa alongside a “one for one” scheme whereby for every overseas worker employed, a British worker in the same discipline is funded or trained. “The UK trains less than 20,000 construction apprentices annually and we have identified that we need around 225,000 new construction workers by 2027 to fill demand,” Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at NFB, told The Independent.
