Women are so poorly represented in the construction sector that their number in occupations such as bricklaying, scaffolding and roofing is too low to measure accurately. This was the stark finding of an ONS review of the UK workforce in 2018.

Two years before that, Modernise or Die, Mark Farmer’s independent review of the nation’s construction labour model, revealed the steadily increasing demand for workers in skilled trades. Farmer said that 700,000 people would need to be recruited to replace those retiring.

This was in addition to “the extra workforce needed of 120,000 to deliver capacity growth”. And before the loss of migrant labour in the run-up to Brexit that has exacerbated the situation. Recruitment from Europe is only likely to become more difficult.

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