Hard Brexit 'would cause crisis for London house building'

Sadiq Khan today published a report revealing the “crippling” effect that a “hard Brexit” would have on desperately needed house-building in the capital.

The paper showed that more than one in four construction workers in London are from the European Union and so face an uncertain future in the UK.

Theresa May has so far refused to provide reassurances over the status of EU workers in London although Home Secretary Amber Rudd said at the weekend it was one of the PM’s top priorities.

Mr Khan warned that a loss of skilled workers could have a “seriously detrimental” impact on achieving the hundreds of thousands of homes the capital needs.

“When I speak to businesses - both large and small – one of the biggest issues they raise with me is the skills gap. They tell me that maintaining a skilled workforce is absolutely crucial to their future and the future of the whole economy,” he said.

“London is in the grip of a serious housing crisis. While we are working to train up more Londoners to have the skills to work in construction, you can’t escape the fact that a ‘hard Brexit’ could leave a quarter of the skilled construction workforce in the capital high and dry.

“This would have a crippling effect on our plans to build the homes Londoners so desperately need.”

There are around 350,000 builders in London working on housing, office space and infrastructure, of which half are from the UK and 27 per cent - or 95,000 - are from EU countries.

Another three per cent are from other European countries, while 14 per cent are from the rest of the world.

Industry experts suggest that London needs up to an extra 13,000 new workers each year until 2021 in order to plug the skills gap and meet the demands on the construction agency.

Mark Farmer, chief executive of Cast Real Estate & Construction Consultancy, said: “It’s very clear that the construction industry is far more reliant on migrant labour than anywhere else in the UK.

“To safeguard against this, London will require at least short to medium term continued access to EU migrant labour and early protections given to its existing migrant workforce.

“As part of a longer term plan, the construction sector, in partnership with developers and supported by the GLA, needs to come up with a clear strategy for attracting and training more home grown talent.”

The report, Housing in London, also shows that concern over housing is at its highest recorded level, with 37 per cent of Londoners citing it as one of the most important issues facing the country.