Sean Keyes CEO of Sutcliffe Civil and Structural Engineering comments on Government remarks on housing targets; “Speaking on Good Morning Britain on May 5th, Housing Secretary Steve Reed pointed to a 15% rise in housing starts and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to delivering 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament. Whilst any uplift in delivery is a step in the right direction, and the renewed commitment is welcome, the harder question is whether the pace can be sustained over the four years that follow.

At Sutcliffe we are involved in the design of around 5,000 homes a year, and what we are seeing on the ground tells us the planning reforms are starting to translate into activity. Schemes that had been stuck for years are beginning to move, and local authorities now have a clearer basis on which to determine applications.

However, a percentage rise from a low base is not the same as a return to the volume of housebuilding this country needs. We are still building less than 200,000 homes a year when the figure should be 300,000. The Government can turn the tap off on schools, universities and even hospitals, but if we stop building houses the consequences for working families and the wider economy are immediate. Housing demand is not going away.

The deeper issue, and one that planning reform alone cannot solve, is the skills shortage facing our profession. The Royal Academy of Engineering has warned of a shortage of up to 1.5 million engineers by 2030, and ECITB data shows that nearly one in five of the current workforce is approaching retirement. Without a pipeline of skilled professionals, sites simply cannot be designed, consented and delivered at the pace ministers are calling for.

That is why, in our 40th anniversary year, Sutcliffe has committed to training 40 new engineers over the next decade. It is also why I continue to press the case at the Association of Civil Engineering board for a serious national conversation about how we fund routes into the profession, through apprenticeships and graduate schemes, before the retiring cohort leaves the industry without replacements. That said, funding apprentices is proving challenging for most SME’s and I would really like to see a greater investment in enabling businesses to afford to take young engineers through to the productive end of their careers. There is a perfect storm impacting businesses and at some point we have to address this affordability gap. 

Planning reform is necessary. So is honesty about the operational reality of getting homes built. The Housing Secretary restated his commitment on national television this morning, and we welcome that. The test now is delivery, and delivery depends on the people who turn the planning permissions into homes.”