By Democrat reporter
Scottish Labour has warned that skills shortages are contributing to the housing emergency as the number of construction workers and apprentices falls.
Last May the Scottish Government declared a housing emergency in West Dunbartonshire, and recent figures show rising levels of homelessness and record numbers of children in temporary accommodation.
Scottish Labour has warned that skills shortages risk worsening this crisis by limiting the number of new houses that can be built.
The number of people working in construction has fallen for two consecutive years, dropping by almost 3,500 between 2023 and 2024 alone.
Since 2019, Scotland has lost almost 12,000 construction workers – the equivalent to roughly 1 in every 13 jobs.
A shortage of workers is one of the key risks threatening the Scottish Government’s affordable housing targets, along with the SNP’s cuts to the affordable housing budget and failure to deliver planning reform.
The Scottish Government’s Risk Register for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme – a document which monitors threats to major projects like this – flagged skills shortages as a potential risk.
The register warned that “if there are insufficient skilled construction workers … this could result in delays to the delivery of affordable homes and reduce likelihood of meeting the target”.
This is considered medium risk, meaning it is “fairly likely to occur”, and confidence in the controls in place is marked as “limited”.
However, despite the clear need to train construction workers to help tackling the housing emergency, the number of Modern Apprentices in the construction sector is falling.
The number of Modern Apprentice starts in construction fell by 213 between 2022/23 and 2023/24, and quarterly data for 2024/25 suggests this downward trend is on track to continue for another year.
“A lack of housing is causing misery across the board – driving up house prices and rent costs, and leaving record numbers of Scots stuck in temporary accommodation.
“To deal with this crisis we need to build more houses and we need to have the skilled workers to do it – but once again our skills system is failing to meet the needs of our country.
“We need to overhaul Scotland’s dysfunctional skills system so it provides people with the right opportunities and supports our wider social and economic goals.”