Britain is facing a dire construction crisis with hundreds of thousands of homeowners waiting more than a year for a builder.
A massive 415,000 people reported enduring a 12-month wait for tradespeople to begin their projects. Meanwhile 301,000 hung around for a year for plumbers and heating engineers, 294,000 for a roofer and 274,000 for a carpenter.
And the problem is set to deepen with one million builders set to retire in the next 10 years, according to the training provider Construction Skills Network. Local Facebook groups are full of frustrated homeowners desperate to crack on with their home improvements.
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One posted: “I’ve been looking for someone to work on our house for months! Can anyone recommend someone who is decent and might actually want to do the work at some point this year???!
“Been ghosted, blanked and rejected more times than I was during my turbulent teenage love life!”
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Another wrote: “We have tried and failed now for over eight months to find a builder who will do a job for us. What is the trick?
“We have contacted at least 20 builders, most never replied.”
Ministers have relaxed rules for migrant workers to try and ease the problem. Bricklayers, plasterers, roofers and carpenters have all been added to the Home Office’s ‘shortage occupation list’.
Simon Harris, head of construction recruitment at Randstad UK warned of a “a brutal labour shortage” last month. He said: “The construction industry is already stretched thin.
“We have lost a lot of people from the house-building side of the industry, in particular: the workforce has lost close to half a million people since 2008. There’s very little slack in the system.”
Mega build projects across the UK such as the expansion of the National Grid and the Lower Thames Crossing are making the problem worse, he added.
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