City recruits developers and contractors to green skills taskforce

Developer Stuart Lipton, Mace chief of staff Hannah Vickers and CITB chief executive Tim Balcon are among the names who have been signed up by the City of London to a new taskforce to address skills shortages in green construction.

The Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce will look at ways to bridge the skills gap in construction, retrofit and maintenance of low carbon commercial buildings in central London boroughs.

It has been established in response to growing alarm at the shortage of skills necessary to achieve net zero, which the City has committed to achieving for the entire Square Mile financial district by 2040.

The 15-strong taskforce also includes Julia Barrett, chief sustainability officer at Willmott Dixon, David Frise, chief of the Building Engineering Services Association and JLL’s UK head of sustainability, Emma Hoskyn.

The taskforce, chaired by Chris Hayward from the City’s policy and resources committee, will run for three years, sharing findings with other large cities in the UK.

“Central London urgently needs a larger skilled workforce to decarbonise its commercial buildings and this taskforce will lead the way in finding solutions to fill this skills gap,” said Hayward.

He said the group had already identified the full development lifecycle, including design, retrofit, construction and maintenance as top priorities for skills action.