Over 100,000 new jobs were created in England alone last year as a result of the big increase in house building, a new report reveals.
Analysis by the Home Builders Federation shows that the house building industry is now supporting around 667,000 jobs, and details how local economies the length and breadth of the country are benefitting from the thousands of additional homes now being built.
‘Building Communities, Boosting Employment’ highlights:
- Housebuilding in London now employs over 100,000 people
- Outside London, Greater Manchester saw the biggest increase in house building employment with an additional 5,418 people recruited last year
- North Yorkshire experienced the biggest proportional growth with employment numbers doubling
- Outside the capital, house building activity in the West Midlands supports most employment with 27,907 jobs supported by housebuilding.
House building rates have rocketed over the past few years. Improvements to the planning system and the highly successful Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme have helped house builders increase output by around a third in just two years. The most recent Government figures show that there were 170,690 net additions to the housing stock during 2014/15, an increase of almost 25% on the previous year. The main component of this new stock was from 155,080 new build completions.
Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the HBF, said: “The house building industry has increased its output at the steepest rate for decades. Delivering the high quality homes we desperately need is also providing a huge boost to economies across the country. The industry is recruiting and training tens of thousands of new people to ensure it can continue to deliver significant sustainable increases in supply and provide the high quality homes the country needs.”
The housebuilding process requires a wide range of different people. As well as traditional on-site trade jobs, the industry employs a range of other skills such as land buyers, accountants, engineers, sales and marketing staff etc.
House builders are recruiting apprentices and graduates as well as people with transferable skills from other industries and the military. The industry is also liking up much more closely with academia to ensure enough of the required people are being trained.
