Builders point to worker shortage

UNDERBUILDING of residential homes over the past few years has contributed to the housing crisis, Master Builders’ Association executive director Michael Kerschbaum says.

Mr Kerschbaum said there had been a shortfall of houses built over the past few years, and a corresponding lack of labour meant an additional 3000 homes could not be quickly built on the 239ha of land to be released by the Government.

“At the moment our industry is pretty much at ca- pacity, and unless we train more people we can’t keep growing and keeping up with the demand that’s out there,” Mr Kerschbaum said.

He said the industry needed up to 3000 more people.

The Master Builders’ Association yesterday suggested measures to increase the number of apprentices.

Mr Kerschbaum said one idea was to predominantly use apprentice labour to build affordable housing, which would boost both labour supply and housing stock.

“The question is do we use the traditional model of one employer one apprentice, or do we maybe have a range of mentors across a building site whose job is just to keep the apprentices on track ... or have a very high rate of apprentices, maybe 50 per cent, on a particular job,” Mr Kerschbaum said.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein admitted there were challenges, but said the Master Builders’ Association had made some good suggestions.