Skills Needs Analysis for the Repair, Maintenance and Retrofit of Traditional (Pre-1919) Buildings in England, 2024

In 2024 Historic England commissioned the Skills Needs Analysis for the Repair, Maintenance, and Retrofit of Traditional (Pre-1919) Buildings in England as an update to the 2013 research. The report examines the current state of the heritage construction sector from a contractor perspective. It details the supply, demand, and training landscape, and highlights key challenges and opportunities in ensuring that we have a workforce with the right skills to safeguard our older and traditional buildings in the years to come.

The Skills Needs Analysis is accompanied by a Technical Annex which provides a more in-depth explanation of the methodologies used. It also provides the full responses to the telephone survey undertaken as part of the research.

The report found that:

• While there is an established and confident contractor base responding to the current active market demand for work on traditional buildings; this supply is nevertheless failing to meet the underlying need for traditional building skills.
• At the same time, major drivers for increased demand for work on traditional buildings are looming: we have recently experienced a period of particular economic uncertainty and there is a backlog of repair and maintenance work; we need to adapt our traditional buildings for climate change if the UK is to meet its Net Zero commitments; and the once in a generation programme to restore the Houses of Parliament is on the horizon.
• The report shows a strong reliance on informal training and experience and an insufficient supply and quality of formal training. There are barriers to recruiting suitable trainees and apprentices, and limited capacity and succession planning in the small and micro businesses that make up the sector. A preference for on-the-job training means that training providers are not being incentivised to grow their offer.

While the situation is challenging, this is also a moment of opportunity to work together to tackle the challenges the sector faces.