UK Construction – The Forgotten Industry

As we welcome our 9th Housing Minister in the last 5 years and our 13th Housing Minister in the last 10, I often wonder why the UK Construction Industry tends to be an afterthought when it comes to Government policy and the delivery of UK economic growth.

Considering construction output in the UK is worth more than £100 billion per annum and contributes to over 7% of GDP, you would expect the Industry would warrant consistency within UK Government ministerial positions and would be part of the wider discussion of how we all can play our part in encouraging economic growth, unfortunately at times it falls very short of this.

Currently, activity within the Construction Industry remains at an all-time high but by no means is it immune to the impact of a wider economic recession, exacerbated by the ‘mini-budget’ and the recent political uncertainty.

Construction output is forecasted to fall by 3.9% in 2023, following a rise of 2% in 2022, with projects towards the end of the Government’s spending review being pushed back into the next review and Councils, that are already financially constrained, expecting to cut spending on new infrastructure projects.

Whilst we face our challenges, the Industry accounts for approximately 10% of the total employment for the UK (approximately 3 million jobs) and needs to recruit over 53,000 new entrants each year just to maintain output. Having routes to entry that are both complex and confusing means that meeting this quota often appears to be an impossible task.

The Construction Industry is often criticised for being wasteful, fragmented and reluctant to innovate, however, I don’t see it and would go as far as saying that the perception of the industry from the outside is often very much different from the reality of within. We are often left to navigate both legislation and policy changes that are impactful to both workers and businesses alike, whilst maintaining positive and sustainable growth with very minimal UK Government support or insight.

With Luzy Frazer MP now becoming our 9th Housing Minister in the last 5 years and with the average tenure being approximately 8 months, it’s a wonder whether we should be welcoming Lucy to the new role or continuing to push forward undeterred and unfettered as we have done throughout the years.