Government plans for renewable energy, nuclear and water infrastructure projects could be hit by a lack of welders and lineworkers, according to a new report.
The study by a former No 10 senior adviser suggested almost 40 per cent of large infrastructure projects could fail or stall over the next five years with the country needing thousands more skilled workers.
Labour hopes a planning overhaul will allow the construction of energy infrastructure, new reservoirs, better transport links and mega-projects like the third runway at Heathrow.
But Raoul Ruparel, director at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s Centre for Growth who wrote the report on on UK infrastructure investment, said projects such as the Sizewell C nuclear plant, offshore wind farms, and the East West Rail route could face challenges due to the lack of specialist labour.
He said the current number of welders in the UK may have to double, with numbers plummeting by 40 per cent in the last 20 years and around half due to retire by 2027, according to Axiom Personnel.
To deliver the projects planned for the next five to 10 years, the Government must bring in overseas workers to bolster numbers, the study says.
It estimates a capital investment of up to £900bn in the UK from 2025 to 2030 across eight key sectors, the largest spend for 75 years.
It comes after experts cast doubt on Labour’s 1.5 million new homes pledge due to a shortage of skilled construction workers.
Mr Ruparel told The i Paper: “Some of the acute skill shortages will particularly hit things like the electricity grid roll out, where there’s shortages of things like high-voltage line workers and cable jointers.
“If you’re thinking about the energy transition, obviously we have set some very clear targets we want to hit and there is a risk that those targets are missed as well.
“A significant shortage of welders and skilled construction workers, I think, could impact some of the nuclear plans where a particular level of safety and regulatory qualifications is important.”
Construction is about to begin on the UK’s first new reservoir for more than three decades – marking the start of a multi-billion-pound building spree designed to avert water shortages in the coming years.
But Mr Ruparel added: “In the water sector, I think there is a challenge, because the uplift is just so large compared to what we’ve seen before.
“We haven’t built a water reservoir in 30 years or so. We’re now building 10 or more in a very short space of time.
“If you get bottlenecks on things like water reservoirs and water pipes and supply you could see housing and some of the new towns not being built.”
The report estimates from 2010 to 2015 that 16 per cent of announced projects did not proceed while a further 21 per cent became stuck in pre-construction for over a decade.
The East of England, London and northern Scotland are set to see significant investment due to Sizewell C, HS2 and offshore wind respectively, but sourcing the appropriate skilled workers in remote locations poses a challenge, the report found.
Areas including Norfolk where large infrastructure projects such as offshore wind farms and East West Rail potentially overlap could also be a challenge to manage, it added.
“Even if we said we wanted to get welders back to kind of where they were 20 years ago in terms of numbers, it’s not clear that would be enough to deliver the type of rollout we’re talking about,” Mr Ruparel added.
There was also an acute shortage of high-voltage lineworkers, electricians who install electrical power lines, with thousands more needed to work on crucial electricity projects such as National Grid’s Great Grid Upgrade and the push for clean power by 2030.
The gap may have to be filled by overseas workers with up to four times as many lineworkers needed, Mr Ruparel said.
“If you look at the training timelines, it’s probably not possible to do that in the UK alone in the next few years to meet the demand in 2028,” Mr Ruparel said.
“So that’s where you have to start to think about immigration and when you can bring in that skilled workforce.
“Even a few 100 or few thousand workers there could delay the entire grid roll out.”
However, firms had reported issues getting work permits approved for lineworkers from parts of Europe, with training taking several years.
And with grid upgrades taking place across the Continent, countries including Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal facing similar skills shortages were likely to be competing to find these workers.
The scale of many of the projects in the pipeline also added to their complexity, the report found.
One example was larger wind turbines creating bottlenecks due to a lack ships that can accommodate the increased size and weight of components.
As well as a shortage of workers, the UK was competing for scarce materials resources with global demand set to outstrip supply for certain materials up to 2030.
Materials, such as bauxite, used across several sectors and a key component in solar, which means the impact could be amplified.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “The Chancellor has been clear that we need to go further and faster to kick-start economic growth. That means ripping up unnecessary regulatory barriers, taking on the blockers and investing in Britain to rebuild our roads, rail and energy infrastructure.
“We are working to address skills shortages in key sectors. We have already removed unnecessary requirements for adult apprentices in the construction industry and our ten-year Infrastructure Strategy will support Skills England in their assessment of where skills gaps exist and need to be addressed to successfully deliver key infrastructure projects.”
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