The government’s £283 million investment to train the next generation of construction workers, programmers and engineers has been met with skepticism from business leaders. They warned that funding was “too little, too late” to address the UK’s growing economic and housing challenges.
Ministers say the funding will help more young people gain the skills they need to meet growing demand for local workers, particularly in construction, as the government presses ahead with its target of building 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament.
Around £100 million of the package will be channeled to metropolitan mayors and local leaders to expand the capacity of secondary school construction courses, reduce long waiting lists and support the goal of training a further 60,000 construction workers. The remainder of the funding will give local leaders more flexibility to increase higher education capacity more broadly ahead of an expected influx of 67,000 additional 16 and 17-year-olds starting post-16 education by 2028.
But critics argue the investment fails to address the UK’s immediate skills shortage and ignores deeper structural problems in the economy.
Michelle Lawson, director of Fareham-based Lawson Financial, described the announcement as “more hot air from the ‘too little, too late’ party”.
“The problems we have are now, not in 2028 or 2030,” she said. “We have focused too much on being world-class in everything except developing home-grown talent in our own children. Apprenticeships are rare, employers are under enormous cost pressure and are often too overwhelmed to train young people.
“Programs like the old cross-vocational YTS should be paramount in getting our children into the workplace. The economy is on a knife’s edge, there is no time to wait.”
Others questioned whether skills shortages were really the main cause of the UK’s economic and housing problems. Rohit Parmar-Mistry, founder of Burton-on-Trent-based data company Pattrn Data, said the policy risks misdiagnosing the problem.
“This announcement assumes that the barrier to a better economy is a lack of skilled workers. That is not the case,” he said. “It’s a lack of incentive for companies to actually build. Blaming the housing crisis on labor shortages is a convenient fiction.
“The real shortage is not labor, but land banking. Big developers have been hoarding land with planning permission for years to limit supply. Flooding the market would affect prices and profits, so they control the tap. You can train an army of workers, but when incentives reward shortages, those workers remain idle.”
Concerns were also raised about whether construction continues to be an attractive career choice for young people. Kundan Bhaduri, entrepreneur and landlord at London-based The Kushman Group, questioned the realism of the government’s goals.
“The promise of 60,000 additional construction workers to complete 1.5 million homes sounds impressive until you consider that that’s about 40 workers per thousand homes, in a sector already losing talent to early retirements and regulatory fatigue,” he said.
“The real question is not whether colleges can expand, but whether young people will choose construction in an economy where home builders and landlords are treated like pariahs. Who will employ these newly trained workers if building millions of homes doesn’t make a profit?”
Some experts warned that competition from other sectors could further undermine the policy. Colette Mason, author and AI consultant at Clever Clogs AI, said the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure is already drawing skilled workers away from home construction.
“Data centers are absorbing construction workers faster than we can train them, and they pay better,” she said. “We have £36bn worth of data center projects competing for the same electricians and site managers needed to build houses.
“If installing AI infrastructure becomes more worthwhile and avoids delays in planning, where do you think the talent will go?”
There have also been calls for better coordination within the government. Kate Underwood, founder of Kate Underwood HR and Training, said the lack of joined-up thinking can dilute the impact of funding.
“We’ve had different departments tackling basically the same problem with money, and it still feels like no one shares a plan,” she said. “It only works if job centers, universities and local employers actually talk to each other and align the courses with real job offers.
“If there are more silos, different rules and more forms, we will still be fighting over the same tiny talent pool.”
While ministers argue the investment is a crucial step towards future-proofing the workforce, critics say without urgent reform to incentives, planning and employer support, the £283m package risks arriving long after the damage has already been done.
