Skills shortage looming

A huge skills shortage in the industry is looming again. A survey by the Federation of Master Builders this week revealed that 28% of firms are now encountering problems, particularly with bricklayers and carpenters.

Dennis Maiden, director general at the FMB, said on Tuesday: "It is a time bomb. The skills shortage has been used by Government to show that the industry is picking up when, in fact, it indicates the opposite. Those people who left construction during the recession won't come back.

"Small and medium firms have traditionally provided 80% of the construction industry's skills training. But they are under immense financial pressure and apprenticeships have fallen by 90% since 1989. People are not being trained, the youngest bricklayers are now in their late 20s or early 30s," he added.

The FMB's state of trade survey for the second quarter of 1996 was published on Tuesday and shows a further decline in workload. The one glimmer of hope was in the repair and maintenance of private housing.

The survey shows 44% of FMB members are working at full capacity, 29% running at three-quarters of their potential and 27% struggling to survive on half or less capacity.

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Changes to the tax deduction scheme are causing anxiety at the FMB. Maiden said: "The risk is that while companies will seek to take operatives into direct employment, many individuals, taking home net rather than gross earning, will move across into the black economy."