The Landscape Institute, the professional home for all those who design, deliver and manage our landscape infrastructure, welcomes the All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment report, Building for BREXIT: inquiry into the impact of Brexit on future skill needs.
The report warns that Brexit ‘could be disastrous’ for the delivery of new homes and infrastructure if access to foreign workers is restricted.
Highlighting a skills shortage among the domestic workforce, the report calls for transitional arrangements to allow the construction industry to draw on EU workers while it works to train a greater number of UK practitioners.
Even without Brexit, the report observes, the ageing of the population means that more people are leaving the industry than entering it. There are nearly 200,000 people from the EU are working in the UK who ‘the industry can ill afford to lose’.
Daniel Cook, Chief Executive of the Landscape Institute, commented: "As a member of the Construction Industry Council, we can see the major impacts Brexit could have on the future outlook for talent in our sector.
"Many EU citizens employed in landscape roles today make a major contribution to the UK economy. There are also many EU and other nations’ students studying on LI-accredited landscape courses operating in the UK. This is an important supply of new talent, upon which our sector is reliant."
The LI is already working to meet the future skill needs of the profession by conducting a major cross-sector review into education and practice. But, Daniel noted, assistance would be welcome: "As outlined by MPs, additional effort is needed to boost training to meet the skill needs in our sector.
"The LI would welcome assistance to create more apprenticeships, work to enhance digital skills across the landscape profession, and improve productivity through greater investment in skills and access to new technology."
