Britain is running out of painters and decorators

BRITAIN faces a shortage of tens of thousands of painters and decorators – putting in doubt government efforts to build a million new homes by 2020, it was claimed yesterday.

There was a shortfall of 33,000 in London and the South East alone, a report warned.

It said this could threaten George Osborne’s pledge to ease the chronic housing shortage. The Chancellor announced an overhaul of planning laws this month in an attempt to speed up housebuilding projects.

The report, by the paint firm Dulux, concluded that the new homes may never be built without the workforce required to apply the finishing touches.

The Home Builders Federation backed Dulux’s assessment. ‘The skills shortage is the biggest issue currently facing housebuilders,’ a spokesman said.

‘The industry is recruiting heavily to ensure it can maintain and build on the increases in housing supply we have seen over the past two years.

‘If we are to build the new homes the country needs, tens of thousands more people need recruiting and training in the coming years.’

Dulux, which based its estimate on a report by the accountancy firm KPMG, is the latest in a string of organisations to warn of a lack of the skilled craftsmen needed to supply the construc- tion industry as it rebounds following the financial crisis.

The Federation of Master Builders said this year that two out of three small builders were turning down work because they could not find staff with the skills.

And the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, complained that the UK was ‘training too many hairdressers and not enough bricklayers’.

The skills shortage is also driving up prices as the few craftsmen available demand top money. A report by the employment group Manpower found that some companies had even resorted to hiring bricklayers from Portugal on as much as £1,000 a week to meet demand.