We’re glad to be partnering with UK Construction Week this year, especially in what is such an important time for the industry, with ambitious housing targets; an ongoing skills shortage; and building safety high on the agenda.

Since last summer’s election, the Government has hit the ground running in their attempt to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years. We’ve seen action taken on the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) and the incoming Infrastructure and Planning Bill. While these are decisive actions and will help roll out more homes, there are fundamental concerns still at play. The UK housing market is severely lacking in diversity, with 90% of all homes delivered by volume developers, placing us completely out of sync with similar nations, who have a much more diverse market of custom build homes and smaller scale, local developers.

But the UK wasn’t always this way. In the 1980s, SME builders were responsible for 40% of new homes in Britain, indeed the very roots of the FMB were in coordinating British SMEs to build new homes in the early years following the Second World War. Small builders can bring greater consumer choice, higher quality housing, and the ability to develop smaller sites that larger firms often overlook. If the Government is serious about delivering its housing ambitions, it must support SMEs by improving access to land and enabling a planning system that can help small developers through the process by cutting out the most byzantine elements. 

However, meeting housing targets will be impossible without addressing the UK’s construction skills crisis. Hundreds of thousands of extra builders will be required to deliver new homes and upgrade existing ones, yet this will not be feasible without a significant push to increase those entering the industry. The launch of Skills England is a welcome step, but it must work closely with industry to develop a long-term, structured plan for vocational training, ensuring a steady pipeline of skilled professionals.

Beyond new housing, the Government has made some commitments to retrofit new homes. Small builders will be at the forefront of delivering these upgrades, but a major obstacle remains. There are few incentives for owner occupiers, which holds back interested builders from training in new green skills. This is why the FMB has been calling for financial incentives to increase consumer uptake and make fabric retrofitting a mainstream priority to boost the health of homes.

While striving to do more as an industry, we must also ensure that quantity does replace quality. As we’ve seen recently with the scandal with spray foam insulation, we need to ensure the workforce is competent. At present, anyone can call themselves a builder, it’s not a protected trade – which means there is nothing in place to ensure a minimum level of competence. This is why the FMB is striving for a licensing system for building companies, which would help elevate standards and drive out rogue traders. It’s encouraging that the Grenfell Tower inquiry report supports this drive for licensing and that it has once again picked up traction in Parliament – a drive we’ll be backing all the way.

There is lots of exciting and important work going on at the FMB. Small builders stand ready to tackle the challenges the construction sector faces, but often they need support to open the door to those making the decisions. Against this background the FMB we will continue its fight to make the voice of small builders heard.

Find out more on the FMB website, where you can read our latest research.

You May Also Like

UK CONSTRUCTION WEEK AND FEDERATION OF MASTER BUILDERS JOIN FORCES FOR INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

IT'S ALL HAPPENING AT UK CONSTRUCTION WEEK LONDON 2025 THIS MAY