It is never easy casting forward Cassandra-like to predict what the new year might hold for us all. We are operating against an unnerving and discomforting backdrop at the moment, with many imponderables and more variants than a covid test laboratory. This time last year, I offered the following wisdom for those in the built environment... I mused that 2022 would see "labour shortages, materials price increases, planning regulation confusion and increased interference from the government". Without wishing to claim the clairvoyant powers of Mystic Meg, I think most of us would agree that all of these issues have indeed had an impact on us over the past 12 months. What I did not foresee, however, was Vladimir Putin's crazed intervention in Ukraine and the resultant impact on energy prices. I also could not have predicted the self-evisceration of the Conservative party and their madness in electing an economically illiterate prime minister and a delusional chancellor. Three weeks in and I'm sorry to say that I do not believe that 2023 will see the issues created by Brexit and covid-19 resolved. The challenge of Home Office-imposed restrictions preventing skilled migrant labour from joining the construction workforce is especially worrying. Take one area of activity, for example - the retrofitting of homes. This is now a core government policy yet, according to new analysis, we will need more than 46,000 workers in the South-east alone to deliver homes which meet government climate targets.
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