IT’S no secret that Northern Ireland suffers from a range of skills shortages – including in the property and construction sectors. In the construction sector in particular, these have persisted for years and impact on the ability of firms to deliver critical projects.
The most recent RICS Construction Monitor showed that 64 per cent of local chartered surveyor respondents were experiencing shortages of quantity surveyors in the first quarter of this year. And this is at a time when activity is contracting rather than expanding.
We also know that the built environment and wider construction industry have key roles to play in driving economic growth. So, we need to address the skills shortages to maximise this potential. This requires a functioning Executive to put in place programmes to address legacy skills challenges. But it also requires an Executive to be in place so that uncertainty doesn’t lead to even more skilled people leaving the market here in search of work elsewhere.
The reality is that uncertainty remains prevalent in the industry, which is characterised by a lack of decision making and planning for all aspects of society. The Northern Ireland construction industry is facing three difficult and long-lasting challenges, namely a lack of skilled workforce, sustained high cost of materials and supplies, and spending cuts from public departments.
We have been facing a significant skills gap in the built environment for some time now and a lack of labour in the market, which is having an impact on construction workloads across Northern Ireland.
Public sector work is a huge part of construction activity in Northern Ireland and without an Executive, there is a lack of certainty about budgets and the pipeline of work. With the future uncertain, this is weighing on the prospect of projects in future, even should we achieve a sustainable and healthy level of construction professionals, there may not be enough projects in the future to keep workloads for professionals afloat.
The construction market is facing challenges with the increased costs of raw materials amid the cost-of-living crisis and current supply challenges, causing pauses and delays in new projects creating bottlenecks across the entire industry.
The social housing market is also facing supply issues, with limited stock to meet demand due to spending cuts and limited inward investment but could also be a knock-on effect from the construction industry’s pressures from a limited workforce and problems with sourcing raw materials.
We are calling for a functioning government to form to support more apprenticeships and to work with industry to deliver training which will close this gap. By supporting initiatives to grow our workforce, we can work towards increasing workloads here which in turn will benefit the economy. Without leadership, Northern Ireland is on the back foot when it comes to tackling the biggest threat to our industry and society, the climate emergency.
A skilled workforce is vital to moving forward and alleviating some of the pressures that the construction industry is facing, so we are calling for an executive to form to support more training schemes to attract and retain more construction professionals in Northern Ireland.
Rics is calling for a working and functioning government to come together to help support the needs of the construction industry and help alleviate some of the pressures so that we can all work towards contributing to communities across the country. We want an Executive that will recognise the value that a growing workforce can bring here, as well as understanding the value that the built environment has in supporting economic recovery as we move forward.
:: Sharon McClements is chair of the NI board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which promotes and enforces the highest professional qualifications and standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure
