Can we future-proof 1.5 Million Homes Without Bridging the Skills Gap?
On Tuesday 6th October, the Future Homes, Skills and Innovation APPG headed to Conservative Party Conference 2026 to talk about the skills and jobs we need to make our homes fit for the future.
Our private roundtable was chaired by Gill Morris, Secretariat of the Future Homes, Skills and Innovation APPG and joined by special guest Paul Bristow, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to tackle the big questions on how we can break down the barriers to building the skills and workforce pipeline we need to future-proof homes across the UK.
Our exclusive roundtable was joined by a brilliant lineup of sector leaders, including:
Seyi Obakin OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Centrepoint
Katy Dillon, Director of Communications, Good Growth Foundation
Mike Leonard, Head of Centre for Future Homes / Chief Executive, Building Alliance CIC, Birmingham City University
David Taylor, Communications Manager, Hill Group
Natasha Armstrong, Head of Strategic Innovation, AQA
Dominic Collyer, Senior Public Affairs Executive, City & Guilds
David MacKenzie, Public Affairs Manager, Association of Colleges
Alex Walker, Head of Local State, Re:State
Alex Balkan, Mobilisation Lead, Conservative YIMBY
Emily Rock-Austin, Engagement Director, St Martin’s Group
Chris Russell, Senior Public Affairs Manager, FSB
Connor Bartlett, Public Affairs Executive, Association for Consultancy and Engineering.
We discussed a range of key issues, from the importance of early stage education and training opportunities, to the opportunity that devolution and combined authorities offer to convene colleges, businesses and partners to adapt to regional skills demands. Our leaders roundtable highlighted that while building new homes is vtial - 80% of the residential housing for 2050 is already built. The sector also needs at least 161,000 additional workers, but there are barriers which range from a lack of interest from young people at (26%) and that employer demand for job ready hires is 36%. The solutions need to look at three key areas, new talent, career changers, and upskilling.
The Future Homes Fringe at Conservative Party Conference 2026 was kindly sponsored and supported by:
