The sector is likely to have provided employment for many of the European Union and non-EU migrants recorded in the highest ever totals from the Office of National Statistics, according to recruitment consultants and lobby groups.
Net migration increased to 330,000 in the year to March, the highest on record. This included an increase for EU citizens to 269,000 (up 56,000) and an increase for non-EU nationals to 284,000 (up 23,000).
Also, there was an increase in the number arriving from Romania and Bulgaria in the 12 months to March 2015 – at 53,000 compared to 28,000 in the previous 12 months.
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But London First, which campaigns in support of the London economy, warned that government rhetoric around immigration shouldn’t become “an excuse to limit the sort of positive immigration that grows our economy”.
Speaking to Construction Manager, Mark Hilton, director of immigration policy at London First, pointed out that the statistics do not reveal how many new arrivals work in construction.
But he suggested that some of the increase in the number of Tier 2 visas offered to “professional, scientific and technical” non-EU migrants would have helped to plug the skills shortage in construction.
“We’re just not training up enough of them. People need project managers and technical engineers, and often they just aren’t available locally,” he said.
“The Tier 2 route is only for professionals who have been interviewed for a job and have a job offer, but the government is looking to place further restrictions on this which is concerning our members, when we’re talking about a fairly marginal number of around 50,000 people a year.”
Hilton’s comments were echoed by Kevin Boakye, a recruitment consultant for professional roles at Capstone Recruitment. He said that recruitment from overseas – in particularly India, South Africa and Australia – had picked up noticeably in the past six months.
"We find there’s a real skills shortage of people with intermediate experience, perhaps four to seven years. Maybe it’s because the people who graduated in 2009 or 2010 went in to law or safer options."
Mark Hilton, London First
“These are people who are being sponsored by employers to come and work here. We find there’s a real skills shortage of people with intermediate experience, perhaps four to seven years. Maybe it’s because the people who graduated in 2009 or 2010 went in to law or safer options.
“But if there is a UK candidate, say for a QS role, they know they can now ask for £10,000 more. In most cases, the employer will pay because they’re up against it and they want to have people who can hit the ground running. If the alternative is sourcing someone from abroad which might take six months, they’re not going to quibble over a few thousand pounds.”
However, while additional migration might not be depressing salaries at the professional end of the spectrum, Boakye suggested this was not the case at the labour supply end of the market.
“I don’t deal with labour supply directly, but I hear talk about Eastern Europeans turning up on site willing to work for much lower than the going rate. Every penny counts, so why wouldn’t you?”
“The government mustn’t use this record figure as another excuse to limit the sort of positive immigration that grows our economy.
“Our world-beating industries need access to talent and skills from around the world in order to remain global leaders. But they are struggling to bring in the talent we lack because they’re hitting government limits for skilled workers.
“We need to make strategic decisions on immigration, not knee-jerk ones that fail to take account of the needs of the economy.”
