29/01/25
National Access & Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) has welcomed the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves’s speech this morning (Wednesday, 29 January) outlining her plans to boost the UK economy. It applauds her ambition to create a new Silicon Valley and go “further and faster” to “kick-start the UK economy”.
However, to make this “kick start” effective and turn words into action, NASC says there needs to be immediate action on the skills crisis across the construction sector, including a damaging shortage of skilled scaffolders.
Clive Dickin, CEO, NASC, said,
“It’s fine to talk about creating growth corridors and building new reservoirs, but without the people to get these projects off the ground, nothing can happen. Whether you are considering individual projects – such as the redevelopment of Old Trafford mentioned by Rachel Reeves – or looking across the whole sector, it’s clear we desperately need more trained scaffolders to get these infrastructure and construction projects started.
“In the recently issued Infrastructure Strategy Working Paper, the government explicitly referred to working in partnership with stakeholders as the strategy develops.
“We have repeatedly asked the government to add scaffolders to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which would help to unlock a global talent pool that could underpin Reeves’s ambition to kick-start this wave of building projects across the country
“We urgently need more skilled and trained scaffolders to ensure that the construction that happens today is built to the highest possible quality. Whatever we build today must be built safely and must be built to last.
“Longer-term we are keen to get more funding into training and education initiatives to give a much-needed boost to the pool of home-grown scaffolding talent. Projects such as NASC’s collaboration with City & Guilds Training on Scaffolding Skills Bootcamps are an excellent example of the industry’s desire to upskill and train more talent “Reeves is keen to be seen as the Iron Chancellor and says she is prepared for a fight. She needs to show some steel and be prepared to have a fight with colleagues reluctant to address the issue of widening the SOL to include scaffolders, whose use of steel will underpin her plans to grow the UK economy.”
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