New research has revealed more than 175,000 construction professionals could be forced to leave the UK due to Brexit.

Analysis by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) states 8% of the industry's workforce (175,500 workers) are EU nationals. However, if access to the single market is not maintained, these workers could be forced to leave the country.

In addition, up to £500 million worth of infrastructure projects could be jeopardised, further impacting on the global competitiveness of major UK cities.

Paul Payne, Managing Director of specialist recruiter One Way, said with no strategy to deal with the loss of nearly 200,000 professionals, the industry is a "ticking time-bomb".

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"The construction industry is already in the midst of a major, ongoing skills shortage and that's set to reach crisis levels once we leave the EU if nothing is done in the coming months," he said.

"The industry is a ticking time-bomb and currently there's no strategy to deal with the loss of nearly 200,000 professionals that we're likely to experience. A further study revealed that two-thirds of firms have already turned away work because of the lack of skills and that's before we've lost an additional 8% of the workforce. It's baffling to think that the issue has been allowed to spiral out of control for so long, but a major productivity downturn could spring some employers into action."

Mr Payne added more needs to be done to promote construction as a serious career choice for young people.

"By developing robust and long-term pipelines of people into the industry we will have a chance to tackle skills shortages before they begin to have a cataclysmic impact on the sector," he said.

"This would inevitably knock on to the wider economy as the industry contributes around 7% to GDP every year. We can't stress how important we feel this to be, it's essentially either a choice between investing in talent or watching the UK construction industry shrink and struggle to complete projects."

(LM)