PRIORITIES FOR GREATER ESSEX
Housing, infrastrcuture and skills
Stuart Graham of Chelmsford felt that accommodating the level of housing growth expected in Essex, partly because of its proximity to London, should be front and centre of the agenda, with or without a new Combined Authority.
“The housing challenge is inevitable and there is the question of how you deliver the infrastructure to support that growth?”
Andy Harper-Rowe of Morgan Sindall Construction agreed but also stressed the importance for the county of raising GVA productivity, a challenge that is inextricably linked to the skills agenda.
The construction industry is one of many within UK Plc that is wrestling with skills shortages and an aging workforce.
Morgan Sindall has responded with an extensive programme to reach out to different groups within the population. The approach is built around appealing to trainees and apprentices, graduates, people with existing industry experience and members of the Armed Forces looking for a start in civilian life.
These and other schemes operate in a challenging climate. Peter Whitmore, Morgan Sindall’s managing director in the East of England, shared that by the time he graduated in 1989 he had written a dissertation on skills shortage.
If anything, it’s got progressively worse over the last 30 years. The construction industry needs 50,000 people per annum to sustain itself. The skills challenge divides into two parts. The first is the white-collar professionals. It starts in the schools, with the 12–13-year-olds and just showing them that construction is a good career path. In its recruitment Morgan Sindall targets 15% of hires as early careers. We bring in new blood every year, delivering a massive amount of training and investment for ourselves,”
Peter Buist of Purcell Architects felt more routes into white-collar professions was becoming increasingly important. The traditional pathway of seven years of training and the costs associated with university student loans discouraged some.
“There’s a gradual change to identifying where we can bring people into the industry via different routes such as apprenticeships.”
He also felt diversity was making gains. “When I was on an architecture course at university it was probably 70% male, 30% female. I think that would be much close to 50/50 now.”
There’s a gradual change to identifying where we can bring people into the industry via different routes such as apprenticeships."
Peter Buist felt places like Colchester and Norwich might struggle to attract the younger demographic as new graduates are invariably drawn to the core cities and London is so close by.
Young people are attracted to careers where varied experiences and flexibility as opposed to long term security.
Paul Denny, of Potter Raper, commented on the approach taken by large professional service firms where it’s not uncommon for packages to include - 30 plus days holiday and working from home.
Some of the big employers are trying to hoard employees because they know that they’ve got a problem in the next few years, with the gap of people retiring.”
Peter Whitmore acknowledged the strategy and said Morgan Sindall Construction was proud of its high staff retention rate, with an annual churn of only 1.4%.
The panel felt the importance of adult education provision across Essex was feeding through into the devolution discussions. Owen Sparks said Basildon was using the social value through procurement to support local investment in skills and training. “It’s grown as part of our assessment criteria.”
