The construction industry enters 2024 carrying a skills shortage that predates the pandemic, was exacerbated by it, and has been compounded by the complex interplay of Brexit’s impact on European labour supply, a generational gap in trade apprenticeship uptake, and a surge in home improvement spending that has stretched capacity across virtually every skilled trade category.
The question of which trades will be hardest to find and most expensive to hire in 2024 is not merely of academic interest. For homeowners planning renovation projects, developers managing construction programmes, and businesses planning commercial fit-out, understanding where labour supply is tightest is directly relevant to project planning, timeline setting, and budget management.
The shortage is structural rather than cyclical. It is not a temporary consequence of an unusually busy period that will self-correct when economic conditions ease. The underlying drivers — an ageing workforce, historically low apprenticeship completions in key trades, the departure of a substantial portion of EU-origin construction workers after Brexit, and a sustained pipeline of both public and private construction demand — are slow-moving forces that will shape the labour market through 2024 and beyond.
The Scale of the Problem
Before examining specific trades, the scale of the overall shortage is worth establishing. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) estimates that the UK construction industry needs to attract approximately 225,000 additional workers by 2027 to meet projected demand — equivalent to approximately 45,000 new entrants per year. Against this, annual apprenticeship completions in construction trades have been running significantly below this level for years.
The average age of a UK construction worker is now approaching 45 years old, meaning that a wave of retirements over the next decade will compound the recruitment shortfall rather than reducing it. The demographic mathematics are stark: more workers leaving the industry each year than entering it, across most skilled trade categories.
Brexit added a specific dimension to this structural problem. The construction industry in the UK had become significantly dependent on workers from Eastern European EU member states — Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states — who filled skilled and semi-skilled roles that the domestic workforce had not been trained to supply in sufficient volume. The combination of Brexit restrictions and the pandemic disruption to European labour mobility significantly reduced this supply, and it has not returned to pre-Brexit volumes.
The Trades in Shortest Supply in 2024
1. Electricians and Electrical Engineers
Electricians will be among the most sought-after and hardest-to-access trades in 2024, for reasons that extend beyond the residential home improvement market.
The electrical industry faces compound demand from multiple directions simultaneously:
The decarbonisation agenda. The electrification of heat (heat pump installations), the electrification of transport (EV charger installation), and the expansion of solar photovoltaic installation all require qualified electricians with specific certifications. Heat pump installation alone — with government targets of 600,000 per year by 2028 — requires tens of thousands of qualified installers, many of whom need additional training in low-temperature hydronic systems beyond their core electrical or plumbing qualifications.
Data and smart building infrastructure. The growing complexity of building services — smart home systems, commercial building management systems, EV charging infrastructure, fibre broadband installation in new development — requires electrical skills that existing workforce demographics do not fully supply.
Regulatory compliance. The 18th edition wiring regulations and associated Part P requirements mean that electrical work in dwellings requires either a registered Part P competent person or building control notification. This regulatory barrier limits who can legally carry out electrical work and concentrates demand on a limited pool of registered electricians.
The result: residential electricians are booking out 8–16 weeks in advance in most UK regions, and experienced commercial electrical contractors are even harder to secure. Hourly rates have risen significantly and show no sign of stabilising.
2. Bricklayers
Bricklaying is perhaps the trade most severely affected by the Brexit-related reduction in EU labour. Large numbers of skilled bricklayers who worked on UK construction sites were EU nationals, many of whom have not returned post-Brexit.
The consequences are visible in the construction industry in 2024. Extension projects that require brickwork to match the existing property’s stock are facing waiting lists of 6–12 months for experienced bricklayers with the skill to work in matching materials. New-build developments, particularly those with traditional brick construction, are reporting bricklayer availability as a primary programme risk. The gap between the quality of available brickwork and the quality expected by architects and clients is a specific concern — experienced bricklayers who can execute complex details, match historic brickwork, or work in traditional flemish and english bond patterns are considerably rarer than those who can lay modern standard-format facing brick to a house builder’s specification.
Apprenticeship numbers in bricklaying have improved slightly in recent years following recognition of the shortage, but the training pipeline is slow — a skilled bricklayer takes years of practice to develop the eye and the efficiency that makes them commercially viable — and new completions will not materially address the 2024 shortage.
3. Plumbers and Heating Engineers
Plumbers and heating engineers are in persistent and severe shortage, with a demand pressure that shows no sign of abating through 2024. The reasons are multiple:
The ageing plumbing workforce. A disproportionate number of experienced plumbers are approaching retirement age. The knowledge transfer from this generation to a younger workforce has been inadequate, partly because the shortage itself means that experienced plumbers have had no time to train and mentor apprentices — they are too busy doing the work.
Heat pump demand. The MCS certification required to install heat pumps and claim the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant is held by a relatively small proportion of the plumbing and heating workforce. The government’s own installer capacity targets — 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028 — require a workforce that does not yet exist at that scale. In 2024, the gap between heat pump demand (stimulated by the BUS grant) and qualified installer supply is one of the most acute in the whole construction trades market.
Gas Safe registration and boiler replacement. Boiler replacement — which requires a Gas Safe registered engineer — continues to be a high-volume requirement. The number of Gas Safe registered businesses has not kept pace with the ageing boiler stock across the UK’s housing, and availability pressure is significant.
The practical consequence for homeowners in 2024: waiting times for a heating engineer for routine maintenance have extended considerably, emergency call-out is expensive and sometimes unavailable promptly, and for heat pump installation the waiting list in many regions runs to many months.
4. Carpenters and Joiners
Carpentry and joinery encompass a wide range of skills — first and second fix carpentry in new build, bespoke joinery for kitchens and fitted furniture, timber frame construction, roof structure, flooring installation — and the shortage affects some of these categories more acutely than others.
Bespoke kitchen and furniture installation — the second-fix carpentry that accompanies the premium kitchen-dining extensions that are popular in 2024 — is facing particular availability pressure. The volume of kitchen extensions being completed requires a large number of kitchen fitters and carpenters to execute the final installation phases, and demand is running ahead of supply.
Timber frame construction is growing in the UK’s new build sector as a faster and lower-carbon alternative to masonry, and the specialist carpenters who work on timber frame systems are in significant demand.
Roof carpentry — the structural carpentry required for loft conversions, dormer construction, and complex roof structures — is a skilled specialism within carpentry that is particularly tightly supplied. The loft conversion market in 2024 is strong (see the home improvements article), and the roof carpenters who execute these projects are booking months in advance.
5. Plasterers and Dry-Liners
Plastering has been persistently short-supplied in the UK construction market, and 2024 is no different. The plasterer shortage has specific characteristics:
Traditional wet plastering skill — skim coat finishing to the standard expected in quality renovation projects — is a skill that requires significant experience to execute to a high standard. The number of plasterers capable of delivering genuinely flat, smooth skim finishes on large, complex renovation projects is smaller than the market suggests.
The dry-lining intersection. In commercial and fit-out contexts, dry-liners (who use plasterboard and jointing systems) are a distinct skill from wet plasterers, but there is significant overlap in residential applications where a plasterer may work across both. The shortage affects both.
Waiting times for quality plasterers in most urban areas in 2024 run to 6–10 weeks. For major projects, securing a reliable plastering contractor is a scheduling priority rather than a late-stage decision.
6. Roofers
Roofing is a trade where the physical demands, the weather exposure, and the safety risks have historically limited workforce entry — and where the existing workforce’s age profile presents significant replacement challenges.
The roofing shortage in 2024 has specific demand-side drivers:
The loft conversion pipeline. Every loft conversion requires significant roofing work — dormer construction, new roof windows, structural alterations to the roof. The strong loft conversion market creates demand for roofers that is driving waiting times upward.
Flat roofing and single-ply. The growth of flat roof extensions, garden rooms, and commercial flat roofing has increased demand for roofers qualified in flat roofing systems — GRP, EPDM, single-ply membranes — which require specific training and experience beyond traditional pitched roofing skills.
Solar PV installation intersects with roofing (solar panels must be correctly integrated into the roof structure) and creates demand for roofers with solar installation knowledge or the ability to work alongside electrical installers.
7. Scaffolders
Scaffolding is not a trade that receives much attention in discussions of construction skills shortages, but it is a persistent bottleneck for projects that require external access. Every significant roofing project, external render job, chimney repair, and multi-storey extension potentially requires scaffolding — and scaffolders must hold CISRS (Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme) certification.
Scaffolding availability affects project timelines in a way that is underappreciated: an extension that is structurally complete and ready for roofing cannot proceed if no scaffolding contractor is available. In busy urban areas, scaffolding availability has become a programme management issue on multi-trade projects.
The Impact on Project Planning in 2024
For homeowners and developers planning construction projects in 2024, the skills shortage has practical implications:
Lead times: For most trades in high-demand categories, assuming a 6–12 week lead time from enquiry to start on site is prudent. For specialist trades (heat pump installers, matching bricklayers, specialist roofers), lead times of 4–6 months are not unusual.
Sequential dependencies: Construction projects involve trades in sequence — bricklayers before window fitters before plasterers before electricians. A delay in one trade cascades to all subsequent trades on the programme. Understanding the most constrained trade in a project’s sequence and securing that trade first is the most important programme management decision.
Price: Trades in short supply command premium rates. The equilibrium between limited supply and strong demand has pushed trade rates significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, and these elevated rates are not expected to normalise during 2024. Budget contingency of 15–20% above pre-2021 trade rates is appropriate for most projects.
Quality selection: A market in which demand exceeds supply is one in which the best tradespeople have their choice of projects and can be selective about who they work for and at what price. The corollary — that homeowners who are insufficiently selective about quality get the tradespeople that quality-conscious clients pass on — is worth bearing in mind. Verifying credentials (Gas Safe registration, MCS certification, CSCS cards, NFRC membership), checking references from comparable recent projects, and resisting pressure to start before adequate due diligence is complete are all more important in a tight market.
Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?
The skills shortage will not resolve in 2024. The underlying demographic and training pipeline factors are too slow-moving for any near-term improvement in the overall supply-demand balance.
There are, however, positive signals. CITB apprenticeship starts have been increasing across several trades. The heat pump installer training programmes supported by government have been growing the MCS-certified installer workforce. And the modular and off-site construction sector — which can substitute factory-built components and reduced on-site skill requirements for some elements of traditional construction — is growing.
For 2024, the practical advice is simple: plan ahead, secure trades earlier than feels necessary, budget for market rates rather than pre-2021 rates, and prioritise quality selection over speed. The construction skills shortage is a real constraint on what can be built, when it can be built, and at what cost — and acknowledging it at the project planning stage is the only effective way to manage it.
