‘Thousands’ of building workers to be trained in Liverpool

The City of Liverpool is ramping up construction with a £700m housing programme that will deliver 16,000 homes and four new train stations

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and CITB CEO Tim Balcon signed a first-of-its-kind training agreement to tackle an estimated shortfall of 9,000 construction workers in the region.

The collaboration between the Combined Authority (CA) and the CITB marks a significant step toward ensuring the region has the skilled workforce needed to deliver ambitious housing, retrofit, and infrastructure projects.

A memorandum of understanding was signed at a £22m apartment project being built by housing association Torus in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, supported by £960,000 from the CA's Brownfield Land Fund.

It is the first formal partnership under the CITB’s new national initiative to create a connected Construction Skills Ecosystem across England, aligning national and regional priorities.

The agreement allows the CA to analyse live data from building sites across the region to pinpoint skills gaps and train the estimated 9,000 extra workers needed over the next five years.

A new Construction Workforce Development Unit will also be created to act as a broker between public authorities, employers and training providers. The pilot scheme will be tested and could be rolled out to other regional authorities.

Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: "The Liverpool City Region has successfully won huge sums of funding to deliver some of the most ambitious housing and infrastructure projects in the country.

“From a £700m housing programme which will deliver 16,000 homes, to HyNet energy, as well as four new train stations. But to deliver on these plans, we need a skilled, diverse workforce. This partnership with CITB is a first for any Mayoral Combined Authority and shows the leadership role we’re taking to tackle skills shortages head-on.

“Together, we’ll create better opportunities for local people, improve apprenticeship success rates, and embed fair employment and inclusion in construction.”