Addressing the Construction Skills Gap
April 26, 2022
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We hear a lot about construction skills gaps lately, a situation that is worrying many across several industries. An initiative set up by the City of London Corporation will attempt to address the issue. There are also concerns about the ability of the construction industry, to retrofit and maintain low carbon buildings in central London. The Skills for a Sustainable Skyline taskforce is chaired by Chris Hayward, and will run for 3 years. Mr Hayward is the deputy chairman of the City Corporation’s policy and resources committee.
The taskforce’s agenda includes supporting the City Corporation’s ambitions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2027 and net zero for the Square Mile by 2040. Leaders and representatives from the built environment sector, central government, local authorities, employers, industry bodies and training providers will be brought together.
A survey of more than 100 industry professionals, found that 91% believed that the commercial built environment sector could not meet net zero targets. Of those polled, 87% thought that there were not enough ‘green skills’ among workers in places like Hertford to carry out sustainable building. These findings have stirred the City of London Corporation into action.
Chris Hayward said: “Central London urgently needs a larger skilled workforce to decarbonise its commercial buildings and this taskforce will lead the way in finding solutions to fill this skills gap. We must work at pace to attract new talent as well as upskill and reskill the existing workforce as we look to meet our ambitious climate action goals. The areas which we have identified as having the greatest scope for improvement are the full development lifecycle, including design, retrofit, construction and maintenance.”
The taskforce’s strategy steering board, is due for its first meeting in May 2022
