There is no way to sugar coat it. We are past the point of polite warnings. The UK construction industry is not facing a future challenge; it is in immediate, catastrophic crisis. If we fail to act now, the ambitious national targets for housing and infrastructure will not just be missed; they will be obliterated. We are currently trying to deliver the future on workforce foundations that are actively disintegrating.
The latest message from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is a last-gasp ultimatum: Change or Die. This isn’t a long-term strategy review; it is an emergency mandate to fundamentally overhaul how the industry recruits and retains talent before it’s too late.
Let’s drop the polite forecasts and face the terrifying facts. We need an army of workers; the equivalent of 251,500 new recruits by 2028. That’s 50,000 workers per year just to keep the lights on and minimally meet demand.
But instead of surging recruitment, workers are vanishing.
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