The firm has urged that the industry needs more people to work in areas such as architecture, planning, quantity surveying, land acquisition, infrastructure, legal work, and practical skills like bricklaying and carpentry if it is to achieve the government's 1.5 million house target.

The Skills England Bill addresses this severe labour shortage in the construction industry and, along with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, should pave the way towards creating the homes the government plans to deliver over the coming five years.

Actis UK and Ireland sales director Mark Cooper says ramping up training opportunities for young people in the construction industry is key to achieving this aim.

The desire to work in construction is there, at least in younger childhood, according to a recent survey of 100,000 young people by the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC).

The survey found that it is one of the preferred career paths for students by the time they reach 11 years old.

Furthermore, the CITB has seen almost one million visits to its Go Construct website this year, with a third of users under 18 and 33% identifying as female.

Women in Construction ambassador and Actis northern regional sales director Jemma Harris has been involved in a CITB careers event and addressed students at a school in Yorkshire to inspire young women to follow a career in a male-dominated profession.

Northern regional specification manager Amaret Chahal, who has co-written some of Actis’ CPD training material, recently spoke to students at Barnsley College about the joy of construction.

Meanwhile, southwest area sales manager Tom Hendzel has helped with lectures to construction trainees at Cornwall’s Truro and Penwith College.

“The government’s pincer movement – of speeding up new homes delivery through its Planning and Infrastructure Bill and training more people to have the skills to enable this to happen – will also need to involve an increase in Modern Methods of Construction,” explained Mark.