Berkeley Warns Over Post-Brexit Skills Impact

Berkeley Group has raised concerns over the impact Brexit will have on the UK's construction workforce as new figures reveal just how heavily London relies on EU labour.

The latest Annual Population Survey from the Office of National Statistics revealed between 2014 and 2016, 28% of workers in London were from foreign EU countries while 7% are non-EU nationals.


With the survey estimating 2.2 million people work in construction and 165,000 of those are from the EU, ONS data states approximately 10% of workers in the UK industry are non-UK citizens.

However in its financial results for the year released today, 20 June, Berkeley said is it a fact that "over half of London's site labour comes from the EU".

"This needs to be addressed by a combination of continued access to EU labour, skills training and innovation in construction if the industry is to achieve its medium term production aspirations," the company said.

In its results, Berkeley revealed pre-tax profit jumped 15% to £935m during 2017, despite housing sales dropping nearly 10% to 3,536 homes.

(LM/MH)