How Gloucestershire is solving the construction skills conundrum

So many plans to get our economy growing rest on building more, but construction has a problem – a critical shortage of labour. Gloucestershire, however, is on the front foot, and the vibes are good.

Dear readers,

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. We hope you had a great weekend.

Last week saw us end with a story about a meeting that took place back in 1964 without which we might not have Cheltenham Festival - or indeed any horseracing in the town at all (you can find that story here).

What those around the table on that day did not know was they were creating an organisation that would go on to influence governments, make more than £200 million a year and be a major voice in an industry worth billions of pounds.

That story followed the news of astonishing growth at one of Gloucestershire’s favourite family construction firms, EG Carter, and Monday’s emotional big read about the launch of The Big Space Cancer Appeal.

Today we take a closer look at a story whose headline broke about two weeks back, but as we were otherwise engaged with family matters were unable to look at. As is the way with Raikes we asked some questions, like why should be feeling so good about a si…