Staff shortages hit tunnel projects and work at UK's largest client

Construction News (CN) reports that contractors will need another 15,000 tunnellers over the next five years if huge projects like Crossrail are to be completed on time.

At present just 500 tunnellers are at work in the UK, said CN, a crisis that has prompted leading contractors to team up to form a skills body, TunnelSkills, to hire and train workers.

TunnelSkills is a venture comprising the British Tunnelling Society and Construction-Skills, writes CN, bringing together contractors including Balfour Beatty, Costain, Joseph Gallagher, Morgan Est, Edmund Nuttall, Rorcon and Skanska as founder members. Chairman Bob Ibell said firms will need 5,000 skilled workers and a further 10,000 back-up staff to cover upcoming work.

Building magazine leads with news that a shortage of quantity surveyors is seriously damaging upgrades to the Ministry of Defence's £18Bn estate.

According to a report published by the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the deficit means budgets and planning are in disarray, with vital maintenance work set aside in favour of building sports facilities.

The PAC criticized the MoD's property agency Defence Estates, the construction industry's biggest client, which it said provided substandard accommodation for service personnel and employed just 57% of the QSs it needed to carry out its work, said Building.