More Bricks, More Mortar, More Migrants

How many times must I write about this?

Day of Wrath! O Day of mourning!

See fulfill’d the prophet’s warning!

I have been telling myself for months that I have to strop writing about Human Quantitative Easing. I’ve said all I can say on the subject, I tell myself. There’s nothing more to add now.

Would that it were so; we must imagine Tom Jones weeping.

Last week, former Chancellor Phillip Hammond told Times Radio that, whilst he didn’t agree with much of what Rachel Reeves has since she became Chancellor, he did agree with one; her focus on planning reform. But the only way to deliver a ‘building boom’ of increased construction of housing and infrastructure, he argued, “will be through additional managed inward migration of construction workers.”

As Rory Geoghegan pointed out, this is just ‘another establishment politician demanding more immigration that will personally benefit them - with little or no regard for the bigger picture or his fellow citizens.’ Rory then shared just a few of his construction interests, which include;

• Castlemead Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Castlemead Group Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Castlemead Developments Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Frazer Holdings Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Frazer Group Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Frazer Homes Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

• Bruno Developments Ltd (housebuilding and property development)

Hammond’s argument, that mass immigration is essential in order to build houses, overlooks the fact that decades of mass immigration has already failed to create a workforce able meet the demand it has created.

Moreover, as I predicted two years ago, the calls for even more immigration would only grow, both due to the increased labour needs of an expanded construction sector and the looming generational shift within the industry.

The UK’s construction workforce is aging: over 20% of tradespeople are over fifty, and 15% are in their sixties. As experienced plasterers, painters, and plumbers retire, younger workers are not entering these professions at the same rate.

This reflects a broader economic issue: rather than addressing structural labour shortages, policymakers default to the easiest, lowest-cost option—importing workers from abroad. Immigration is used as a wage suppressant, with competition with low-wage economies therefore been prioritized over addressing domestic recruitment challenges—primarily, but not exclusively, pay. For over a decade, Britain has been trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle—recruiting from lower-wage economies to hold down pay, which in turn worsens recruitment and retention, only to be "solved" by sourcing workers from even poorer countries.