Rory Hearne: Construction now part of  precarious ‘gig’ economy

Young people are reluctant to enter a sector with boom-bust bouts of unemployment and bogus self-employment, but a State agency would counter this, says Rory Hearne

The Government should immediately create a state home-building and retrofit company in order to attract the workers to deliver homes, through quality permanent employment and apprenticeships.

In the coming years, we need to build a massive number of social and affordable homes, retrofit our housing stock to meet climate targets, and refurbish vacant and derelict buildings. 

But there’s a shortage of skilled construction workers to build homes.