Without MMC housebuilders ‘will need 200,000 more workers’

Without modern methods of construction UK housebuilders will need nearly 200,000 additional workers to meet the government’s mid-2020s target of building 300,000 new homes a year, according to new research.

Analysis by the Construction Industry Training Board and consultant Whole Life found that if housebuilding activity were to reach the levels currently being set by the government without any increase in the use of MMC, the industry would need to ramp up the number of workers by 195,000 over the next seven years.

The CITB’s report, The Impact of Modern Methods of Construction on Skills Requirements for Housing, focused on changes to workforce levels based on using panelised and volumetric offsite housebuilding.

It said that current levels of these techniques used in housebuilding were estimated to be at relatively low levels, around 6%.

The report’s scenarios show that ramping up volumes of panelised and volumetric construction to just over half of total building activity might ease some of the longer-term pressures on skilled trade and manual workers.

But it warned that the number of skilled trades and manual workers to support homes being constructed with current build methods in 2018-21 would need to be increased.

After 2021, the emphasis would shift to maintaining employment levels of site-based skilled trades and manual workers “to support current build methods while at the same time developing skills for offsite workers”.

And non-manual workers would need to be trained and developed to support both onsite and offsite work.

The CITB said the government should do more to encourage the use of MMC in public housebuilding activity.

It also said one of the challenges it faced in compiling its report was the lack of available evidence around the impact on the workforce of MMC for home building.

“There is an opportunity for government to help promote a forum for sharing information, such as real data on workforce requirements and best-practice information on MMC techniques, which could help stimulate further adoption by industry.”

The report also called on the government to “help to promote conditions for sustained, long term market investment in home building by helping to create a future, visible pipeline for housing development”.