Hard’ Brexit could cost construction 214,000 jobs, warns Arcadis

The British construction industry could lose out on 214,000 workers if there is a ‘hard’ Brexit, according to research from Arcadis.

The report found that a ‘soft’ Brexit could see the industry lose out on 136,000 workers – around 78,000 fewer than in the hard Brexit scenario.

According to the research, which was conducted for Arcadis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, British construction could lose a volume of workers equivalent to the entire population of Luton (214,700 according to ONS 2015 estimates) in the event of a hard Brexit.

This is based on a potential scenario whereby there would be an extension of the points-based system currently in place for non-EU migrants.

If those EU nationals leaving the industry could not be replaced at the same rate by new EU workers, the research estimated 214,000 fewer people from the EU would enter the infrastructure and housebuilding sectors between now and 2020, based on an assumed combined workforce of 1.5m.