Persimmon recruits ex-forces personnel to fight housebuilding skills shortage

The FTSE 100 company, which is headquartered in York, has announced plans to retrain people from the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Jeff Fairburn, chief executive, said Persimmon needs to recruit new staff to meet increasing demand in the housing market.

This has put pressure on the resources available to build new homes, in particular workers with bricklaying and joinery skills.

Mr Fairburn told The Yorkshire Post: “Right across the industry there is a real need for more training and more skills.”

At the same time, 10,000 people a year are leaving the armed forces, many of whom struggle to find work after serving their country.

Mr Fairburn added: “I have good friends who have come out of the forces. They find it very difficult to find rewarding work afterwards.”

Persimmon has appointed a dedicated ex-military resettlement specialist, Tommy Watson, to spearhead the programme and the first of its training partners, Nordic Focus Training Group.

The company welcomed the first batch of new employees at the start of October and said it is on course to bring 500 new people into the business next year.

“If our growth continues, we will repeat this in 2016,” said Mr Fairburn. “They are very keen to learn. They have good transferable skills and obviously are very good at working in a team.”

He added that people are travelling across the country to try for places on the programme.

Mr Fairburn said: “What we are offering is training and life skills and a career that can last a lifetime.

“They are very keen to take these positions up. It’s proving to be in high demand. They find the work very rewarding.”

The new recruits have started on an 18-month training programme with time spent in the classroom and on site.

Mr Fairburn said: “The new recruits are all starting on an 18-month training programme with time spent in the classroom and out on site.

“Our courses welcome new people every four weeks and based on the recruits we’ve already seen we are very excited with the quality of the candidates and some of them I’m sure will go on to take management positions within the business in the future.”

He said he hoped the rest of the industry could take on extra people to help with the shortage of skilled trades.

Demand for new homes is growing thanks to Government-backed initiatives such as Help to Buy and Funding for Lending.

Irving Weaver, chairman of Doncaster-based housebuilder Strata, welcomed the move by Persimmon as “a step in the right direction”.

Mr Weaver said: “To get that training up to speed is going to take some time, but the industry certainly needs it.”

Persimmon employs 3,500 people in 24 businesses across the UK. It is Britain’s biggest housebuilder by market capitalisation.

Keen to get on sites and start building

Chief executive Jeff Fairburn said Persimmon is very pleased with the housing market and is keen to open new sites and start building on those sites.

The UK is facing a massive structural undersupply of new homes.

Experts believe that the country needs 200,000 new homes a year, but the industry is likely to fall 25 per cent short of that figure this year.

Earlier this year, Mr Fairburn attacked “destructive” and “indefensible” campaigns against new housing developments and said Britain will be unable to build enough homes unless it can resolve “horrendous” issues in the planning system.