Robert Merry is an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years. He also acts as an expert witness. Here he presents his view of the stone industry this month.

The construction industry needs more labour. We are currently in a strong business cycle and there is an upturn in construction.

The CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) predicts that the industry needs approximately 224,000 new recruits over the next 4 years. In addition, the CIOB (Chartered Institute of Builders) of which I am a Member, reports that the industry has a ‘demographic bulge’ of over fifties, heading towards retirement age and leaving the industry. Historically, early retirement in construction is high, due to the physically demanding and confrontational nature of the work.

A potential solution is to tap into the million 16- to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEETs). It is true that the cost of training is high for an apprenticeship compared with other industries – the average is £24,000.

The current solution is to use migrant labour, both skilled and unskilled. Despite some surmountable health & safety concerns about employing people who do not use English as a first language, this group provides a much needed resource when the industry expands in busy times, such as now.

But in the face of thousands of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers wearily trudging from country to country across Europe, hoping to find ‘room at the inn’, we live in fear that if more come here we won’t be able to cope. It’s ironic that we propose to tighten the borders, bury our heads in the White Cliffs of Dover and threaten to leave the European Union if we are forced to take more.

As well as having grossly immoral overtones, I would argue it is also damaging to the construction industry because we clearly need this resource. Firstly because we rely on migrant labour to fill the shortages, as explained above, but secondly because the construction industry in the UK is internationally recognised and we export our skills as well as importing talent.

The World Trade Organisation is pursuing greater liberalisation of the movement of labour and the principle of the EU is the freedom of movement to work. To take a stance where we close our borders to migrants could severely damage our international standing and effect construction both at home and internationally.

Also an increase in population equals an increase in GDP, which in turn speeds up investment. More houses, more schools, more hospitals and more infrastructure. The construction industry and the nation benefits.

In March this year the CIOB published a report titled An Analysis of Migration in the Construction Sector. It argues that the Government should not resort to restricting migration and construction is best served by the free movement of Labour.

The UK needs to be an open trading nation. Policies that threaten labour mobility would be damaging.

An Analysis of Migration in the Construction Sector also states we should boost support for training UK citizens in construction – thereby providing an effective way to moderate the flow of migrant labour in the future.

It calls for legislation to ‘oblige’ developers and construction businesses to train local people.

And, finally, it calls on the Government to invest directly in house building, rather than leaving it all to the private sector. This would provide opportunities to train a UK construction workforce to sustain the industry.

The reality for the construction industry is that migrant labour is essential as the only way to fill the labour gap… for now, anyway. The closing of borders and implementation of legislation that restricts movement of labour will damage the construction industry and eventually the nation as a whole.

But we have a potential indigenous workforce available. The question is: how do we engage them in the future of the industry?

Robert Merry, MCIOB, ran his own stone company for 17 years and is now an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager. He is also an expert witness in disputes regarding stone and stone contracts. Tel: 0207 502 6353 / 07771 997621