Army of 5,300 new brickies will be trained to build 1.5m homes thanks to £140m funding

• Published: 0:01, 22 Nov 2024

By Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary

WE utilized to beryllium a location gathering country. A federation that took pridefulness successful gathering homes for families, with the skilled workforce to spot that through.

In 1968 we built much than 350,000 homes successful England.

But by 2023 that had fallen by a third.

We’ve go a state wherever increasing much builders, much brickies, much chippies, conscionable hasn’t been a priority. A state wherever trades conscionable haven’t been taken seriously.

And the outgo has been massive. Every location not built is simply a location not lived in, a family’s imagination not realised. And excessively galore families person been forced to springiness up connected that imagination of buying a bully home.

Being capable to spend a decent home, determination to rise a household and physique a life, shouldn't conscionable beryllium a dream.

I know, arsenic Sun readers know, it should beryllium a right.

So this caller authorities volition get Britain gathering again, delivering 1.5 cardinal caller homes for families, successful each country of the country.

But if we are going to bash this, we request to instrumentality skills earnestly again.

We’ve forgotten the worth of skilled trades to this country. We’ve ignored method training. We’ve looked down connected apprenticeships.

The past authorities request to look successful the mirror. Again and again, I warned them that the fig of youngsters starting apprenticeships was dropping, and what was their response? A motion of the shoulders.

Now we’re each paying the terms – missing the skilled workforce to physique the caller homes this state desperately needs.

But that changes now. A homebuilding gyration calls for a skills revolution.

So we are partnering with FE colleges and manufacture to make 32 caller Homebuilding Skills Hubs and present fast-track operation apprenticeships crossed England to get operation moving arsenic rapidly arsenic we can: there’s nary clip to waste.

A caller service of apprentices volition assistance physique homes and turbocharge the government’s maturation ngo – backed by £140m of manufacture investment.

Our caller skills hubs volition present peculiar fast-track apprenticeships successful conscionable implicit a year, fractional the clip of a accepted operation apprenticeship. The Construction Industry Training Board and the National House-Building Council volition marque definite these caller builders are up to scratch.

More than 5,000 caller operation apprenticeship places volition beryllium made available, delivering maturation for our system and bully jobs for our young people.

And bully jobs mean bully wage – truthful we’re boosting apprentice wages from adjacent year. An 18-year-old operation apprentice volition spot their minimum hourly wage summation by 18%.

Working manus successful manus with a caller assemblage we’ve acceptable up, Skills England, we’ll pinpoint section skills gaps, moving enactment to wherever it’s needed most. That’s however we marque definite we person the close skills to physique the close homes successful the close places.

But we won’t conscionable beryllium gathering homes. We’ll beryllium gathering amended futures for our young people. Building a amended Britain. The Sun gets it – their Builder Better Britain run is bang on.

But to physique that amended future, archetypal we’ve got to look backmost and larn from our mistakes. Because determination was a clip successful our past erstwhile this state decently valued skills, erstwhile skilled workers got the respect they deserve, erstwhile gathering homes was a nationalist priority, not an afterthought.

I judge we tin get backmost to the aureate property of homebuilding. That’s wherefore we’re backing our young radical with thousands much apprenticeships. To get Britain gathering again, to get Britain increasing again, and to present the bully homes that each household deserves.