Industry is waiting on concrete details
Small and medium-sized construction firms need clarity around Brexit sooner rather than later, according to the Federation of Master Builders.
Responding to the release of the government鈥檚 , the FMB has stressed the need for certainty and stability and called on the government to clarify its approach to migrant workers as soon as possible.
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: 鈥淒espite some pessimistic predictions, we鈥檝e yet to seen any sign of the Brexit process having a seriously negative impact on the wider economy.
鈥淗owever, for this to continue as we approach this critical phase of the process we now need to minimise the risk of uncertainty clouding people鈥檚 decision-making and spending plans and starting to feed through into the real economy.
鈥淥ne area in which we now need greater clarity is over the shape of post-Brexit migration policy. For the many construction SMEs who are currently facing severe skills shortages the certainty they need is that access to skilled EU workers will not be drastically cut-off. We hope this will follow closely after the publication of the Migration Advisory Committee report in September.鈥�
The white paper said businesses should be able to move 鈥渢heir talented people鈥� from the UK to the European Union after Brexit.
Existing rules covering Irish citizens will be unchanged.
While the document emphasised a need to end the free movement of people in December 2020, it said it was necessary to recognise the 鈥渄epth of the relationship and close ties between the peoples of the UK and the EU鈥�.
Berry said the construction sector was more reliant than average on migrant workers from Europe given that 9% of construction workers are from the EU.
This figures rises to nearly a third in London.
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