The government will not meet its housebuilding targets of 300,000 new homes per year by 2025, as the construction workforce is too small. 

Make UK Homes has said many obstacles stand in the way of the government achieving its ambitious goal, including finances, planning rules and a lack of labourers.

Director Steve Cole said the problem of labour shortages in the construction sector is “now at a critical point”, which is why he has urged the government to make use of modular building instead. 

“Government must help modular to grow at speed and take advantage of the fact [that] modular can build homes quickly,” he stated.

This comes after the modular home builder reported that building 300,000 new homes a year would need 103,000 tradespeople in construction in addition to those already working in the sector. 

What’s more, as many builders are looking forward to retirement, another 17,000 people will be needed every year to replace them. This is three times the number of people entering the industry at the current rate. 

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the sector is continuing to lose workers. There are currently 80,000 fewer labourers than in 2016, and numbers have not been lower since 2013.

According to Mark Farmer, chief executive of Cast consultancy, almost one-third of the workforce will be retired by the mid-2020s, which means employment is likely to have dropped by 300,000 workers by the housebuilding deadline of 2030 if this rate continues. 

This is why there is a big drive to encourage people to seek jobs from a construction recruitment agency, as many youngsters have been put off following the pandemic, wage inflation and Brexit, and the industry desperately needs more workers.