NHBC to invest £100m to address housebuilding skills shortage

The NHBC, which provides warranty and insurance for new build homes, said it is “committed to closing the skills gap in the housebuilding industry with the launch of its new training hubs”. 

It is in the process of evaluating prospective locations across the UK, with plans for the first hub to launch in early 2025.

There have been a number of recruitment drives in the sector over the past 12 months. Earlier this year, Inside Housing launched its Housing Hires campaign to promote the social housing sector as a place to work and support people to find and develop careers at housing associations and councils.

Places for People revealed in October it had set up a new training programme for the housing and construction sector, aiming to train over 200 apprentices in its first year.

NHBC’s fast-track approach is designed to enable apprentices to complete training in 14 to 18 months, compared with timescales of up to 30 months which some traditional training routes can take.

The facilities will initially provide training across skills in critical demand for housebuilding; they would be flexible and able to adapt to local housing needs and changes in regulation.

The aim of the hubs is to “immerse apprentices in real-site conditions from day one”, preparing them for life on site.

Roger Morton, director of change and training hubs at the NHBC, said the scheme would be “shaping the future of UK housebuilding”. 

He added: “NHBC’s multi-skills hubs will shake up housebuilding training, tackling the skills shortage head-on and making a real difference to the future of the industry.

“[The] hubs will have a significant impact, producing skilled tradespeople faster and who are ready to hit the ground running from day one.”

The chief executive of L&Q spoke at a conference in June about how a lack of engineers and scaffolders is holding back housing associations’ fire safety remediation efforts.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith said that to achieve its housebuilding ambitions, the next government would need to work across departments to address the skills shortage.

On the new hubs, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said the government is committed to its target of delivering 1.5 million homes during this parliament, “while breaking down barriers to opportunity by fixing our broken skills system”.

She added: “If we are to meet this ambitious target and fix the foundations of our economy, we need to ensure we have a skilled workforce and give more apprentices a foot on the career ladder.

“The need to boost our country’s skills is crucial to our mission-driven government, and I am pleased this initiative will give apprentices skills to seize opportunity.”