The government agency’s initial report noted that up to 20% of the housebuilding workforce is made up of non-UK nationals, rising to 65% of foreign labourers in London, according to the most recent Home Builders Federation workforce census.
The NFB called for a three-to-five year construction visa alongside a scheme where a British worker is funded and trained in the same discipline as every overseas worker who comes to the UK to fill the gap.
“The reality is that the lack of SME (small and medium enterprise) housebuilding is a massive contributing factor,” Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders, told the Big Issue.
“People often say that we’ve got to get more people interested in construction. And I think that obviously the government’s obsession with university education and moving away from trades has created problems in terms of selling that to parents and schools.”
Labour, by their own admission, already face a challenge in building 1.5 million homes and while there is already an expectation that the bulk of those homes will be built in the back half of their five-year term, the government does not have time to waste.
It takes between two and three years for a worker to become qualified and a further two years to build up the experience to become competent to a good level, said Wojtulewicz.
A special visa – designed to end before an overseas worker could gain residency – could allow the government to deal with the problems today and train up the workforce of tomorrow.
“If it is tied to companies specifically then that person should be replaced either by an apprentice doing the same job or fund an apprenticeship so you’re effectively training a British person you bring in,” he added.
“The reason we need it to not just be tied to one particular job and one particular company is because the majority of the industry is now self-employed.
“We’ve gone for three to five years because that gives the government a chance to train more people, fix the planning system so that the trainers and retainers can win more work and train the next but also gives people a little bit of security.”
Introducing a special visa could see Keir Starmer following in the unlikely footsteps of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who he met on a state visit in September 2024.
The far-right populist leader has also taken a hardline approach to immigration but Italy has raised quotas for work visas for non-EU citizens to 452,000 between 2023 and 2025 – an increase of around 150% on the previous period.
It’s almost unthinkable given Meloni’s political leanings – but it might take an Italian job for Starmer and co to open their doors to foreign workers and build their way to success.
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