The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has recently conducted a survey from which its results predict that 54% of businesses in the surveying sector will be turning down work due to large skills shortages by 2019. This will amount to approximately 27,000 projects being turned down.
The same survey of 75,000 members of RICS revealed that more than 43% of firms were turning down up to five contracts per year due to the lack of skilled workers. The data suggests that the number of firms turning down work will increase by 11% per year until 2019, by which time this figure could peak at 54%.
RICS reported that the problem lies in sourcing employees with the right qualifications for firms’ needs. The shortage is already having an effect among surveyors, with 85% of those questioned saying that a lack of qualified candidates meant they had problems recruiting during 2014.
Commenting on the report, Alan Muse, Director of Built Environment Professional Groups at RICS, said: “Surveyors play a pivotal role in the delivery of every construction project. Simply put, without surveyors, things don’t get built. That’s why our research is worrying: if so many firms are turning down work due to a lack of available talent, demand for skills will soon far outstrip the supply.
“For many companies, that time is already here, but the next few years look like a real tipping point – construction as an industry looks set to grow, but at this rate it’s very unlikely that we’ll have the capacity or the capability to fulfil planned projects.”
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