Housebuilding surge creates over 100,000 jobs in 2015

Over 100,000 new jobs were created in England alone last year as a result of the big increase in housebuilding, a report released today reveals.

Analysis by the Home Builders Federation shows that the housebuilding industry is now supporting around 667,000 jobs, and details how local economies the length and breadth of the country are benefitting from the thousands of additional homes now being built.

The ‘Building Communities, Boosting Employment’ report has outlined that:

• Housebuilding in London now employs over 100,000 people.
• Outside London, Greater Manchester saw the biggest increase in housebuilding employment with an additional 5,418 people recruited last year.
• North Yorkshire experienced the biggest proportional growth, with employment numbers doubling.
• Outside the capital, housebuilding activity in the West Midlands supports most employment with 27,907 jobs supported by housebuilding.

The report also found that improvements to the planning system and the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme have helped housebuilders increase output by around a third in just two years. The most recent Government figures show that there were 170,690 net additions to the housing stock during 2014/15, an increase of almost 25% on the previous year.  The main component of this new stock was from 155,080 new build completions.

Speaking today, Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of the HBF, said: “The housebuilding industry has increased its output at the steepest rate for decades. Delivering the high quality homes we desperately need is also providing a huge boost to economies across the country. The industry is recruiting and training tens of thousands of new people to ensure it can continue to deliver significant sustainable increases in supply and provide the high quality homes the country needs.”

Stephen Stone, chief executive of Crest Nicholson, commented: “Crest Nicholson welcomes the HBF’s findings that 100,000 new jobs have been created in the housebuilding industry over the past year. It’s a great time to work in this industry, especially given the Government’s recent commitment to build 400,000 new homes, and we continue to see very high demand across all of our developments. However, to support the growth of the sector, it’s vital that our industry as a whole works to address the skills shortage that seems set to challenge us all over the coming years.”

HBF says the housebuilding process requires a wide range of different people. As well as traditional on-site trade jobs, the industry is working to employ a range of other skills such as land buyers, accountants, engineers, sales and marketing staff etc. The report said that housebuilders are recruiting apprentices and graduates, as well as people with transferable skills from other industries and the military. The industry is also working much more closely with academia to ensure enough of the required people are being trained.