UK’s £500bn infrastructure project pipeline at risk post Brexit, warns RICS

The UK construction sector will face a severe skills crisis if it loses access to the EU single market, according to a global building organisation.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has warned that Brexit could jeopardise the jobs of over 176k workers.

The figure represents the number of people employed in construction in the UK who are from other EU countries.

At around 8% of the total construction workforce, RICS said the industry cannot afford to lose them.

Prime Minister Theresa May has so far backed a right for EU workers to remain in the UK after Brexit, but the Government is yet to make it clear which workers will be permitted to stay.

RICS, in a report due to be published today (March 15), has said losing that 8% of workers would threaten the future of “some of the country’s biggest infrastructure and construction projects” – a £500bn infrastructure pipeline across 700 separate projects.

Further, the organisation said the issue is heightened as the UK “is already in the grip of a construction skills crisis”.

RICS is now calling on the Government to fast-track visa applications from EU construction professionals.

Speaking to Sky News, RICS president Amanda Clack said: “In terms of skilled workers we have a huge shortfall at the moment, and a shortfall in the core skills that we need to deliver the major construction programmes

“Obviously now on the back of the EU referendum we have to think about what do we need to do to secure the skills we need to ensure we deliver on the infrastructure programmes, but also for the housing programme within the UK.”

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