Britain’s economic recovery will be blighted by a trade skills drain, without Government action

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  Posted by: electime      10th February 2021

A chronic shortage of key trades including electricians, carpenters and plumbers will hamper Britain’s economic growth over the next ten years and threatens to stoke home repair bills and house prices, a new report reveals.

The UK must urgently expand its trade apprenticeship schemes, with 305,000 new construction trades apprentices needed to fill the void left behind by an ageing workforce, COVID-hit skills shortage and a drain of European skilled labour

Britain’s economic recovery post-COVID is being threatened by a looming construction and trades skills crisis, a detailed new study launched during National Apprenticeship Week  (February 8 to 14) shows.

Without plugging a 1.25million recruitment need for construction and trades workers – and a projected 305,000 shortfall in construction trades sector apprenticeship numbers – over the next decade, Brits can expect to see home repair bills and house prices rocket, as demand for home improvements looks set to significantly outstrip capacity.

Within the construction sector, the report reveals a need to recruit 228,000 key trades apprentices. Just under two thirds (61 per cent) of those are electricians, carpenters and plumbers.

Critically, without an action plan to tackle the projected chronic lack of trade skill apprenticeships, the shortfall could “seriously hamper” Government house building targets and threaten its ambitious ten point plan for a new ‘green industrial revolution’.

It has been described by the HomeServe Foundation, which commissioned the independent new ‘UK Domestic Trade Skills Index’ from Capital Economics, as a “perfect storm”.