By Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary
WE used to be a house building country. A nation that took pride in building homes for families, with the skilled workforce to see that through.
In 1968 we built more than 350,000 homes in England.
But by 2023 that had fallen by a third.
We’ve become a country where growing more builders, more brickies, more chippies, just hasn’t been a priority. A country where trades just haven’t been taken seriously.
And the cost has been massive. Every house not built is a home not lived in, a family’s dream not realised. And too many families have been forced to give up on that dream of buying a good home.
Being able to afford a decent home, somewhere to raise a family and build a life, shouldn’t just be a dream.
I know, as Sun readers know, it should be a right.
So this new government will get Britain building again, delivering 1.5 million new homes for families, in every corner of the country.
But if we are going to do this, we need to take skills seriously again.
We’ve forgotten the value of skilled trades to this country. We’ve ignored technical training. We’ve looked down on apprenticeships.
The last government need to look in the mirror. Again and again, I warned them that the number of youngsters starting apprenticeships was dropping, and what was their response? A shrug of the shoulders.
Now we’re all paying the price – missing the skilled workforce to build the new homes this country desperately needs.
But that changes now. A homebuilding revolution calls for a skills revolution.
So we are partnering with FE colleges and industry to create 32 new Homebuilding Skills Hubs and deliver fast-track construction apprenticeships across England to get construction moving as quickly as we can: there’s no time to waste.
A new army of apprentices will help build homes and turbocharge the government’s growth mission – backed by £140m of industry investment.
Our new skills hubs will deliver special fast-track apprenticeships in just over a year, half the time of a traditional construction apprenticeship. The Construction Industry Training Board and the National House-Building Council will make sure these new builders are up to scratch.
More than 5,000 new construction apprenticeship places will be made available, delivering growth for our economy and good jobs for our young people.
And good jobs mean good pay – so we’re boosting apprentice wages from next year. An 18-year-old construction apprentice will see their minimum hourly pay increase by 18%.
Working hand in hand with a new body we’ve set up, Skills England, we’ll pinpoint local skills gaps, moving support to where it’s needed most. That’s how we make sure we have the right skills to build the right homes in the right places.
But we won’t just be building homes. We’ll be building better futures for our young people. Building a better Britain. The Sun gets it – their Builder Better Britain campaign is bang on.
But to build that better future, first we’ve got to look back and learn from our mistakes. Because there was a time in our past when this country properly valued skills, when skilled workers got the respect they deserve, when building homes was a national priority, not an afterthought.
I believe we can get back to the golden age of homebuilding. That’s why we’re backing our young people with thousands more apprenticeships. To get Britain building again, to get Britain growing again, and to deliver the good homes that every family deserves.
