London’s social housing sector raises alarm of critical labour shortages

Addressing these issues could savesocial care services more than £3.5bn a year.
Beyond saving councils billions in home-based social care costs, fixing the worst housing for low-income older adults could save the NHS £600 million per year.
Housing associations’ annual investment in existing homes already adds £11.8 billion to the national economy and supports 148,000 jobs across the UK.
However, the current shortage is undermining the sector’s ability to provide and maintain affordable housing, directly impacting economic growth while limiting opportunities to create jobs and support communities.

The London Homes Coalition – a partnership of major housing associations, contractors and specialist suppliers in London – has today launched the ‘Building Skills for the Future’ report, which identifies the critical risk to the maintenance, retrofit and provision of London’s social and affordable housing.

Based on a first-of-its-kind analysis of the consolidated work programmes of the seven key housing associations in the Coalition, the report identifies a demand of 10,000 people annually to meet their asset management commitments, and up to 31,000 to deliver new build planned investments over the next five years.

Combined, the Coalition’s pipeline represents about 10% of the overall construction workforce in the capital, which is a significant proportion considering the competing needs of other housing association and council house building and asset management programmes. Without further action, the Coalition alone faces a potential shortfall of around 2,600 skilled people to deliver these investments.

This challenge will be particularly critical for specific trades and occupations. For example, the Coalition alone will require 8-10% of the London’s roofers and carpenters & joiners, which already face significant recruitment pressures.

Considering current recruitment trends, the Coalition would only have 85% of the roofers and 78% of the surveyors needed to provide and maintain affordable housing across the capital over the next five years.

Additionally, the mutually competing demand for these skills from both low carbon retrofit pressures across all development sectors and the asset management requirements of London’s housing associations is further straining the workforce available for both.

The UK social housing sector invests billions annually in improving and maintaining homes, significantly contributing to community value, job creation, and economic growth. Fiona Fletcher-Smith, Chief Executive Officer at L&Q, highlighted the opportunity and challenge this provides: “A quarter of London’s new homes are built by housing associations, and we are responsible for maintaining and investing in over 700,000 homes across the country. However, our workforce is ageing, retiring, and not being replaced by newly trained staff. This growing challenge threatens the provision of genuinely affordable, warm and safe housing in the capital.”

The London Homes Coalition recognises the need for sector-wide collaboration, engagement with further education and training providers, and close cooperation with government bodies at national, regional, and local levels. The Building Skills for the Future report outlines three key strategies:

Promote the sector nationally, showcasing opportunities and benefits of working in the social housing sector, working closely with education providers to proactively reach young people, and targeting under-represented groups.
Remove barriers to apprenticeships and skills development, reviewing current entry requirements, promoting existing programmes, and working with education providers to improve training provision.
Ensuring work pipeline and funding certainty, allowing for long-term training programmes that add value to communities.

Key to achieving this will be to redouble efforts to ensure the workforce is representative of the capital and the people the London Homes Coalition serves. Currently, women represent only 14% of the construction workforce in London, with significantly lower percentages (around 2%) in trade occupations. Similarly, ethnic minorities only make up approximately 24% of the construction workforce in the capital. Careers in these trades offer excellent pay, conditions and scope for progression but these opportunities aren’t reaching all of London’s diverse communities. Targeted initiatives will not only address immediate labour shortages, but will also build a more robust and diverse talent pipeline for the future.

Elly Hoult, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Peabody, said

“We recognise there is no ‘quick fix’ to this issue. It needs a long-term plan, with organisations across the sector working together to bring about significant change. This is an important first step and we welcome more organisations to join the London Homes Coalition. Together, we’re finding ways to get more people from all backgrounds into construction jobs, while addressing the skills gap that increasingly becomes a barrier as we aim to build more homes and refurbish many others.”

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