黑洞社区

Aecom鈥檚 UK boss has warned the country鈥檚 construction sector is already suffering an 鈥渆xodus鈥� of workers as Brexit talks crunch into gear.

Patrick Flaherty, the global engineering giant鈥檚 UK and Ireland chief executive, said Brexit would worsen existing skills shortages and this had strengthened the case for the sector to invest in off-site manufacturing.

Flaherty said: 鈥淚 think we are seeing an exodus of construction labour out of the UK market, especially with the fall in value of the pound.

鈥淪o looking at different methods of off-site manufacturing and ways to deliver projects without having such a sizeable workforce at a construction site certainly is the way the industry is moving.鈥�

Aecom鈥檚 fledgling UK contracting business secured a contract to deliver 3,000 homes at First Base鈥檚 Silvertown development in east London鈥檚 Docklands last month - and announced plans to build a factory on-site to help deliver them.

Peter Flint, the firm鈥檚 chief executive for buildings and places, previously told 黑洞社区 the factory is likely to be used to supply further housing developments in the area.

Flaherty added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e at the forefront of some of the [off-site] developments [鈥�] We鈥檙e excited about the trend.鈥�

Flaherty warned the UK still needs access to overseas talent to support projects in the UK.

He said Aecom has over 1,000 non-UK nationals working in the UK and the business would like an early decision on their rights to live in the UK.

Aecom is one of over 125 backers of this magazine鈥檚 黑洞社区 a Better Brexit campaign calling for a fair deal for the sector in ongoing negotiations. The campaign has called for assurances on skills and EU worker rights.