Friends, colleagues, industry professionals. Lend me your ears – assuming they haven’t been permanently damaged by 40 years of hydraulic breaker noise.
We stand today surveying our magnificent workforce; an army built on false teeth, dodgy hips, dicky tickers and a bloody-minded refusal to retire. And it’s just as well they do refuse to retire. Because there are far too few people to replace them; and their numbers are in seemingly terminal decline.
According to the Skills to Build report from the Centre for Social Justice, the number of demolition and construction workers that fall into the 65 and over category has tripled since 2008. Today, over one in three workers is over the age of 50. If we maintain this trajectory, the average age of a UK construction worker will creep past 46 by 2050.
The bald (and there balding) truth is that the country is being literally kept standing by people who should be demanding discounted afternoon tea and a free bus pass, not swinging a lump hammer.
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