Hague says Brexit is also raising concerns about the
construction workforce and a possible shortage of skilled
trades workers in Britain’s building industry.
“There’s uncertainty about movement of people and skills
shortages, especially in the area of ground engineering,”
Hague said.
“If we close up the borders with Brexit, what do we do
next? We’ve got some very good, very skilled migrant workers
from Europe. If we should shut the doors to them, where do
we go from there?”
Hague says one bright light for the construction industry in
the U.K. has been a commitment from the British government to
fund a number of new major infrastructure projects. Among
them is the High Speed 2 (HS2), a new high-speed railway line
linking London to Birmingham and eventually Manchester.
“That has been talked about for a long time, and it will be
the stimulus for a lot of construction in the U.K.,” Hague said.
“There’s a lot of work happening on it, demolition work, site
preparation, but there’s no physical permanent work of any
magnitude starting at the moment.”
Hague says aside from large capital projects like the HS2,
the construction market in Britain “starts to look a little bit
more challenged.
“There’s been a shortage of domestic housing in the U.K.
We need to be building around about 200,000 homes per year
to keep up with population growth and demand. We simply
aren’t doing that,” he said.
“There will always be demand in the domestic market for
residential builds, but it’s very slow at times. The market is
saturated for construction, which drives the prices down and
it puts pressure on the margins.”
Hague says dealing with all the uncertainty surrounding
Brexit has been very difficult, and not just for people in the
construction industry.
“If we went back to referendum, I think we’d have a very
different outcome, but that’s only my personal opinion,” he said.
COVER FEATURE
AARSLEFF GROUND ENGINEERING
“Companies are wanting to place package work more so
if they can offer more techniques, more solutions. It’s
certainly a trend that we’re seeing more and more in
the U.K. and in the rest of Europe as well.”
– Kevin Hague, Aarsleff Ground Engineering
Soil nail slope stabilization by Aarsleff
at Haddricks Mill, Newcastle
30 Q4 2019 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
