Home Builders Federation says one in six builders are from EU and calls for permit system for skilled workers to build more homes and ease housing crisis

More than one in six people working on housebuilding sites across Britain come from other EU countries, rising to half of site workers in London, according to a new report.

A survey of 37,000 housebuilding workers across Britain shows 17.7% are from the EU. More than half of those come from Romania, with 12% from Poland and almost 10% from Ireland.

In London, where housing demand is at its most acute, some building skills are dominated by EU workers, with more than 70% of carpenters, 63% of demolition and groundworks workers, 61% of general labourers, 54% of plasterers, painters and decorators, 44% of bricklayers and nearly 40% of roofers hailing from other EU countries.

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Nationwide, 15% of bricklayers , 25% of general labourers and almost 18% of finishing trades, which include plasterers, painters and decorators, come from the EU.

The survey by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) on more than 1,000 housebuilding sites, underlines the extent of UK sites’ reliance on overseas workers. The federation said its report was the first extensive survey of the sector and showed that builders would need continued access to skilled EU workers following Brexit to deliver the government’s target of building 300,000 homes a year.

The federation is lobbying the government for a special permit system (similar to the mooted barista visas) that would allow housebuilders to recruit workers from abroad after 2019 to ramp up construction from the 217,00 homes built last year.

In the capital, 56% of workers in the housebuilding sector are from outside the UK and 49.5% are EU nationals. Of those, half come from Romania, 8.5% from Bulgaria, and 6.4% from Poland.

The federation said that although tens of thousands of UK-born workers have been recruited and trained in recent years, training took time and would not be enough to meet demand. It said that with an ageing UK workforce, the reliance on EU nationals was likely to grow. About 70% of overseas workers are in their 20s or 30s compared with just over 50% of their UK colleagues.

Federation spokesman Steve Turner said: “We needed evidence that demonstrates housebuilding should be treated as a special case; hopefully this quite clearly demonstrates that it is a special case and heavily reliant on EU labour.”

However, the survey shows that most EU housebuilding site workers intend to stay in Britain. Fewer than 7% of EU nationals surveyed said they were not intending to stay in the UK industry.

Stewart Baseley, the federation’s executive chairman, said: “The results of this census clearly demonstrate the reliance the industry currently has on non-UK workers. Output is up a massive 74% in recent years but achieving the very challenging targets set by government will require further big increases in workforce capacity.

“While the industry is investing heavily in recruiting and training young people leaving our schools, colleges and universities, continued access to overseas workers is absolutely essential.”

More than 217,000 new homes were built across the UK last year – 15% more than in the previous year but still well short of the government’s target of 300,000 homes a year. In London, 39,600 homes were built, the highest number since the 1930s.

The new London plan published last week set a target for 65,000 new homes a year although the government has indicated the figure should be 72,000 to meet housing needs.