You can’t build homes without people. And you certainly can’t do it without the machinery that gets the job done.
The Government’s pledge to streamline planning rules for small and medium-sized builders is a positive step, particularly for the SMEs that actually deliver homes. But planning is only one part of the puzzle. The deeper crisis lies on the ground: a shrinking workforce, rising costs and a tax and training system that actively punishes the very things that make construction possible.
Since 2019, the construction sector has been losing around 70,000 workers a year. The average age of a UK construction worker is now over 50. This isn’t a looming issue – it’s already here. Too many firms simply cannot find the people they need, and the skills pipeline is not replenishing fast enough.
And yet, instead of creating the conditions to hire, train and invest, government policy is doing the opposite. The recent increase in employer National Insurance is a tax on jobs. Proposed changes to Business Property Relief will penalise investment in capital equipment. But together, they form a tax regime that discourages both job creation and long-term investment.
This is not abstract theory. It directly affects the firms doing the work. Take plant hire – the sector that provides the excavators, cranes and generators that turn planning consents into physical reality. Most builders do not own this machinery; they hire it from specialist firms that invest in, maintain and deliver it. These firms are the backbone of Britain’s construction supply chain.
And they are overwhelmingly family-owned SMEs. Their value is held not in cash or shares, but in machines, yards and depots. Remove Business Property Relief, and many will be forced to sell off essential equipment just to pay inheritance tax – or close the business entirely. That does not just undermine capacity, it actively discourages future investment. It is a tax on productivity.
Ministers talk up supply-side reform and economic growth, but their own tax policies undercut both. Construction is by its very nature cyclical and capital-intensive. Companies need certainty to invest. Instead, they are met with fiscal instability and short-term policymaking that leaves them unable to plan, hire or grow.
In an effort to address the skills shortage, the Government has announced a £3 billion apprenticeship package. But this is not a question of spending more. The UK’s public finances are in a dire state with the deficit climbing and debt interest swallowing up fiscal headroom. The answer cannot be yet another subsidy or centrally managed scheme. The answer is to make what we already spend work harder – by putting employers in the lead.
The current system is overly centralised, bureaucratic and failing on outcomes. Apprenticeship completion rates in construction remain under 60%. Smaller firms are buried in admin. Training is designed around the needs of providers, not the needs of the businesses doing the building. Thousands of mid-career workers who want to retrain are locked out entirely.
We do not need more public subsidy. We need reform. Modular, flexible, employer-led training that matches how real businesses operate. A tax framework that encourages investment in both people and plant. And full expensing should be expanded to include leased assets, so SMEs can continue to invest.
Britain cannot tax its way to growth, centrally plan its way to productivity or borrow its way to prosperity. Growth will come from the ground up – from firms that lay foundations, hire apprentices and take real-world risks.
Planning reform opens the gate, but without skilled people and functioning kit, nothing moves. A government that claims to be pro-growth must start acting like it. That means backing delivery, not just talking about it.
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