Britain’s largest contractor has warned that stopping the free movement of labour across Europe could send costs spiralling and delay mega-projects like HS2 and the nuclear new build programme.
Setting out what it wants to see as being a key focus for the proposed new industrial strategy Balfour Beatty says: “Another key focus of the industrial strategy should, in our view, be the labour market and more broadly, providing a coordinated approach across the whole area of skills training.
“Skills shortages are a common denominator across several sectors and many companies of all sizes are already finding it difficult to recruit enough skilled staff. For industries such as infrastructure, success is contingent on is being able to access highly skilled individuals.”
The company pointed to the fact that approximately 2.2 million EU nationals work in the UK and free movement of labour in the EU has allowed it to find the skilled staff that cannot currently be sourced in the UK.
“Given the number of major infrastructure projects in the pipeline, uncertainty around the free movement of labour could cause the industry recruitment and staffing difficulties and may increase costs where demand for labour outstrips supply and the subsequent risk of project delays,” it said.
This will be particularly relevant for mega-projects such as HS2 and the nuclear new build programme. An early and integrated policy response to both retain the skills of those who have migrated here and to ensure that the UK remains an attractive place for talented people to reside should be a key element of government’s industrial strategy, Balfour added.
“If we want a successful industrial strategy then we must invest in the people who will deliver it, so skills, the investment in human capital, must be a priority in the industrial strategy. In this vein, we welcome government’s plans to increase the number of apprentices by three million and introduce the apprenticeship levy.
“However, we do not believe that the apprenticeship levy alone will be enough to meet the shortfall in skilled workers the infrastructure industry needs. To effectively resolve these skilling issues, we believe it’s necessary that for a collegiate approach to agree a clearly defined programme, designed through close interaction and genuine dialogue between government, industry and representative bodies, such as the Construction Leadership Council.
“Most importantly, the strategy should be adhered to over the long-term as we see in other countries such as Germany.”
Balfour Beatty’s warning comes just a day after the publication of the Farmer review into skills, called Modernise or Die, which warns of the dire consequences of lack of skills and failure to modernise.
