The new training centre, backed by a £100 million investment from National House Building Council (NHBC), is intended to help address a projected shortfall of 239,300 construction workers by 2029.

Construction skills shortage linked to housing delivery pressures

The Barking Riverside facility will train up to 200 apprentices each year in key housebuilding trades including bricklaying, groundworks, site carpentry and timber frame erection.

Designed to replicate live construction site conditions, the training programme aims to produce site-ready workers in as little as 14 months — significantly faster than many traditional construction training routes.

The hub forms part of NHBC’s planned national network of 12 multi-skill training facilities, which are expected to collectively train up to 3,000 apprentices annually.

The project comes amid continued industry concerns that workforce shortages could undermine the Government’s housing delivery ambitions, particularly across major regeneration sites and large-scale residential developments.

Barking Riverside selected as first London training hub

The facility is being developed at Barking Riverside, one of East London’s largest housing developments, where outline planning permission has recently been approved for up to 20,000 homes.

Located on River Road, the training centre is being delivered in partnership with Bellway and Barking Riverside Limited, with additional funding support from Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).

Around 80% of the facility’s activity will focus on apprenticeships, while the remaining provision will support upskilling, traineeships, skills bootcamps and career-change programmes.

Industry leaders warn labour shortages could slow housebuilding

Roger Morton, Director of Business Change at NHBC, said the industry needed significantly more skilled workers to maintain housing delivery rates.

He said: “This training hub is exactly what London needs right now. Without more skilled workers, we simply won’t build the homes people need.

“Building 10,000 homes requires around 2,500 bricklayers, 2,500 groundworkers and 1,000 carpenters, and we don’t have enough.”

Morton said the training hubs were intended to accelerate apprenticeship delivery and improve workforce readiness.

He added: “Our network of 12 multi-skill training hubs will deliver up to 3,000 apprentices a year, trained in real site conditions from day one.

“This will create site-ready tradespeople in as little as 14 months, which is twice as fast as more traditional education routes, helping to speed up the delivery of quality new homes we urgently need.”

Tim Balcon, Chief Executive of CITB, said large-scale housing developments would require long-term workforce planning and employer support for apprenticeships.

He commented: “It is more important than ever that we break down barriers to developing a skilled home-building workforce and for employers to take on apprentices.

“These training hubs are an excellent example of a coordinated industry approach to address the skills shortages facing the industry.”

David Burns, Managing Director of Barking Riverside at Bellway, said the ageing construction workforce remained a major challenge for the sector.

He said: “With an aging workforce, the challenges we face in the construction industry in meeting the government ambitions to build more homes can only be successful by providing training and skills to the next generation.”