Scape Group chief executive, Mark Robinson has claimed Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) will offer an immediate solution to the impending domestic skills gap in UK construction.

His comments come after key immigration statistics showed that EU migration is at its lowest since 2012. Approximately 219,000 EU citizens arrived in the UK, as 145,000 left.

Mr Robinson said: "The flow of critical migrant workers from the EU looks increasingly uncertain and this sits on top of a rapidly ageing workforce and an existing lack of replacement workers with the necessary skillset.

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"The Government is going some way to tackling the domestic skills gap with construction T-levels, spending more than £500m a year on new-style technical courses that offer an alternative route than A-levels into many careers. It has pledged £204m of funding for innovation and skills in the construction sector, including training a workforce to build new houses, and £34m to scale up innovative training models across the country.

"This is a positive step forward and vital for a sector where capacity, simply cannot be stretched any further. But these initiatives will not plug the growing skills gap overnight, they are arguably too little too late for an issue that has been on the horizon for some time, especially if we lose access to a labour pool consisting of 500m people next year.

"Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) offers an immediate solution to this challenge. Using MMC, it is possible to build up to four times as many homes with the onsite labour required for a traditional build. Factory-based production does not generally draw from the same labour pool as onsite construction and is not competing for the same skills."