THE MAGAZINE FOR THE DRAINAGE, WATER & WASTEWATER INDUSTRIES
MAIN FEATURE
With buoyant workloads within the sector the Brexit process has placed further strain on the availability of skilled workers.
of its industry and highlight the efforts that have been made to maintain these essential services despite everything that has occurred. But no, Water UK’s only response was short and sweet with ‘this isn’t one for us on this occasion’. It is perhaps a little worrisome that the organisation could not find either the time or inclination to provide any narrative response whatsoever. It is perhaps worrisome because it raises the question as to whether it is working on the old adage ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it!’ We will never really know!
TRADE ORGANISATIONS
There was, however, a highly informative response from Norman Howell current CEO of the Pipeline Industries Guild (PIG). Norman is Director of Norman Howell Associates Ltd and has extensive experience within the pipeline and utilities sectors. A member of the Guild since 1985, Norman has held both Chair and Director positions within the organisation since 2007 and was made an Honorary Life Member in 2018. Having viewed the questionnaire Norman has provided a view of the industry’s current and potential future challenges as follows, that one thinks covers many aspects that the industry drivers themselves itself may
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have been thought to comment on.
The water and wastewater sectors are currently in a relatively stable position, but network owners and their service partners do face significant challenges going forward such as regulatory compliance and delivering significant AMP7 maintenance and capital programmes, climate change, the drive towards net zero carbon emissions, environmental impact and finances. Both sectors in the industry are moving quickly to embracing new technology and processes to meet these challenges which are often highly sophisticated and data driven requiring a workforce with broader skill sets than has traditionally been needed.
With buoyant workloads within the sector the Brexit process has placed further strain on the availability of skilled workers. These sectors, like all those within the utilities industry, has an ageing workforce with an engineering skills shortage and this has resulted in a deficiency of skilled operatives, technicians, and engineers. This skills gap has for many years been bridged in part by workers from the European Union. However, the uncertainty around the employment conditions for migrant workers following Brexit has resulted in many of then returning to their home countries. The Covid
pandemic has further exasperated this problem as it has accelerated this process. The UK’s new points-based immigration system is preventing movement of workers back from the EU and attracting new foreign workers to the UK. This is placing an increased demand from the UK labour market at a time when Government is using investment into the UK’s infrastructure as a means of promoting economic recovery from the Covid pandemic. This deficiency is particularly affecting the low skilled aspect of the wastewater sector where it is difficult to attract UK workers. Skills shortages are affecting many areas of the UK economy with a sever lack of HGV drivers and manual labour being well documented ion the national media. The particular shortage of HGV drivers is impacting material supplies and transport issues causing delays in project delivery. In addition, material supplies from Europe are being impacted by this shortage and the changes to import rules and custom procedures. These issues are leading to increased costs, loss of available skills and the inability to address skill scarcity at the pace required.
The Government is encouraging all sectors to make employment more attractive to UK domestic workers through training, careers
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