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‘The construction industry as a whole takes about 10 per cent of its workforce from the EU, and their future is now uncertain’
to work in the profession, so the increase in workload over the last few years has been met by an influx of EU trained graduates, many of who are as well trained, or better trained than their UK counterparts. Again, it is unlikely that they will be forced to leave, but like the wider industry, the profes- sion will find it increasingly hard to employ trained graduates from abroad. If the UK adopts the Australian
points system for visas, it is likely to favour the more highly trained gradu- ates who have more chance of getting through the system than the less edu- cated lower skilled people. While this is potentially more positive for the architecture profession, it will continue to make things difficult for contractors
to find the site operatives they need. On the contracting side, this seismic
change in the freedom of movement is likely to add further momentum to prefabrication as a positive direction for the UK construction industry. Creating jobs in parts of the UK where there is a ready workforce is naturally going to take the pressure off construction sites, and because factory productivity is much higher than site productivity, fewer jobs will be needed to meet the demand for homes. For materials the picture is much more
complex. We import a great deal of construction materials – roughly 60 per cent of construction imports come from the EU, and this proportion is about double the material we export to the EU.
It is almost certain that the price of these materials will rise, and the uncertainty of pricing will make it less attractive to specify such materials in the short term. We import roughly £800m of sawn timber every quarter, and this is one of the areas that will be most severely affected by price changes. European sub-contractors and specialist suppliers, often highly valued for the high quality of their work, will also become more expensive. While this uncertainty will be
softened by the fact that China is now the largest source of construction imports, the next four countries in terms of import values are all EU members, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. We had four months to prepare for
this decision, I anticipate that we will spend many years regretting it.
Rory Bergin is a partner at Sustainable Futures, HTA Design.
enq.106
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk
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