The Federation of
Master Builders has stressed the need for certainty and stability, and called
on the Government to clarify its approach to migrant workers as soon as
possible.
Responding to the
release of the Government’s Brexit White Paper, Brian Berry, Chief Executive of
the FMB, said despite some pessimistic predictions, we’ve yet to seen any sign
of the Brexit process having a seriously negative impact on the wider economy.
"However, for
this to continue as we approach this critical phase of the process, we now need
to minimise the risk of uncertainty clouding people’s decision-making and
spending plans and starting to feed through into the real economy," he
continued.
"For most
businesses, the Government’s White Paper will be judged on whether it manages
to achieve this.
"One area in
which we now need greater clarity is over the shape of post-Brexit migration
policy. For the many construction SMEs who are currently facing severe skills
shortages, the certainty they need is that access to skilled EU workers will
not be drastically cut-off. We hope this will follow closely after the
publication of the Migration Advisory Committee report in September.
“The UK construction
sector is more reliant than average on migrant workers from Europe – at
present, 9% of our construction workers are from the EU. In London, this rises
for nearly one third. Already, even with access to EU labour, the industry is
facing an acute skills crisis.
"Nearly 60% of
firms are struggling to hire bricklayers and nearly as many are facing
difficulties finding carpenters. The shortage of skilled workers is fast rising
up the list of barriers to SME builders in their quest to grow and build more
of the homes the UK so desperately needs.
"Without access
to EU workers, there is a real possibility that skills shortages will further
intensify. This will threaten the delivery of new housing and have a knock-on
effect on growth across the wider economy.”
