What we asked government, in writing.
On A level results day the guide went live and 13 letters went to Downing Street, eight departments and the local MP. They are all here, as sent, with every reply.
The ask is public. So is the silence.
The industry needs 206,000 extra people between 2026 and 2030, and nobody in Britain owns the job of explaining it to the people who might join. So we built the explanation, put it at community.lechley.com/get-into-construction, and wrote to the people whose departments depend on the workforce it feeds. Each letter enclosed the open invitation.
Round one went by post on 13 August 2026. Two more rounds followed, to MPs and bodies beyond this list: around eighty letters in all, and one reply so far. Every letter is published here as it was sent. Every reply is published as it arrives, in full, with who it came from. Take the words for your own MP if they are useful; that is what they are for.
letters in the first round, published here
rounds sent, around eighty letters in all
reply received, from Department for Work and Pensions
The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MPPrime Minister, 10 Downing StreetNo reply yet
Your announcement of new technical education pathways was the most encouraging thing a construction employer could have heard from Downing Street in years. I am writing to offer you the missing piece that no announcement can supply: the plain, honest explanation that turns a pathway into a person walking through it.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction, based in Garstang. I ask almost every director I place how they got into this industry, and the answer is nearly always an accident: a relative on the tools, a teacher who knew someone, a summer job that stuck. Luck is not a workforce strategy, and the CITB says we need 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030.
The information failure is the cheapest part of that problem to fix, so we fixed it. This week, on A level results day, we released a free, complete guide to getting into UK construction: what the industry actually is, all six routes in including the technical and apprenticeship pathways you have championed, what apprentices are really paid, and free mentoring from working directors, matched personally. No advertising, no charge, no cost to the public purse. It sits at community.lechley.com/get-into-construction, and employers and existing initiatives are now joining it as one shared front door.
You have spoken about rewiring Britain and about giving vocational routes parity of esteem. This is a Lancashire business doing exactly that with its own resources. Three asks: have your team look at it; if it stands up, point the pathways and skills programmes you have announced towards it; and let us bring employers, educators and young people to any conversation where they would help.
"You do not need permission to start" is the last line on the page. It felt like something you might say.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Louise Haigh MPFirst Secretary of State, Cabinet OfficeNo reply yet
The rewiring of government you are leading is the right moment to fix a small, unglamorous failure that sits between at least four departments and therefore belongs to none of them: nobody in Britain owns the job of explaining the construction industry to the people who might join it.
The CITB puts the industry's need at 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030. Housing sits with MHCLG, apprenticeships with DfE and DWP, the construction brief with DBIST, and the infrastructure pipeline with Transport, Energy and the Treasury. Every one of those departments depends on the same workforce, and a sixteen year old trying to join it tonight will find scattered pages, jargon and prospectuses. We are not losing young people to better industries. We are losing them to industries that are easier to understand.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction, and rather than lobby for someone to fix this, we built it: a free, complete, honest guide to getting in, released this week on results day, with free mentoring from working directors attached. No advertising, ever, and no cost to the public purse. Employers and existing initiatives are joining it as one shared front door: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
My ask is coordination, which is your territory. Twenty minutes with you or your team, and an introduction to the right people across the departments this touches, so the government's skills investment and our industry's information front door pull in the same direction. I will bring employers and young people to any table that helps.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon the Baroness Smith of MalvernMinister of State for Skills, Department for Education and Department for Work and PensionsNo reply yet
Your joint skills brief across education and employment is precisely where the construction industry's biggest fixable problem sits, and I am writing to hand you a free tool for it.
The CITB forecasts a need for 206,000 additional construction workers between 2026 and 2030. The routes into the industry are genuinely excellent: foundation apprenticeships, where construction was among the first sectors; degree apprenticeships that leave a 22 year old with an accredited honours degree, four years of experience and no tuition debt. Yet almost nobody outside the industry can describe a single one of them, and the information failure has a very specific shape. The major schemes open between September and January for the following September, so a school leaver who starts looking in July has missed a full year. I see the consequences of that trap every summer.
This week, on results day, we released a free and complete guide: every route, real pay including the apprentice minimum wage rules that young people are most commonly underpaid on, the two vacancy services, the application windows, and free mentoring from working construction directors, matched personally. Nothing on it is an advert and nothing is sold. Go Construct, Find an Apprenticeship and the professional bodies are linked throughout: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
Three asks. Have Skills England stress test it; anything wrong will be fixed within a week. Point your programmes and communications at it alongside your own materials. And give me twenty minutes to show you what employers tell us about why the pipeline leaks, because I suspect it would be useful to the apprenticeship reforms you are steering.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Blair McDougall MPMinister for Construction, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and TradeNo reply yet
Congratulations on your appointment. You are, by the industry press's count, the twenty eighth construction minister this century, which is less a comment on you than on the machinery you have inherited. It also means the industry has learned to build the things that need continuity outside government, and I am writing to offer you one of them.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction. Your brief covers reindustrialisation, industrial strategy jobs plans, skills and labour markets, and every one of those runs into the same wall: the CITB's 206,000 additional workers needed by 2030, in an industry that has been short of people for two decades. The strangest part of that shortage is that the entry routes are excellent and almost nobody outside the industry can describe them.
So this week, on results day, we released a free, complete, honest guide to getting in: what the industry actually is, all six routes, real apprentice pay, and free mentoring from working directors matched personally to anyone starting out. No advertising, no charge, and it will outlast any reshuffle: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. Employers are joining it to list their apprenticeships and placements free, and existing initiatives are connecting into it as one shared front door.
Two asks for your first months. Use it: link it, put it in front of the sector bodies you meet, and tell us what is wrong so we can fix it within the week. And meet me for twenty minutes. I speak with contractor and consultancy directors every day, and I can put the labour market reality behind your jobs plans in front of you without a single slide.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MPSecretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentNo reply yet
Welcome back to MHCLG. The homes mission you have returned to has one constraint that planning reform cannot touch: the CITB says the industry that builds those homes needs 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030, and it has been short of people for twenty years.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction, and I began as a trainee quantity surveyor on site with Sir Robert McAlpine, knowing almost nothing about the industry I had joined. That is still how most people arrive: by accident. Almost every director I place tells the same story, a relative, a teacher, a summer job. The routes in are excellent, including apprenticeships that pay from day one and degree apprenticeships with no tuition debt, but a school leaver, a parent or a career changer trying to find them tonight will hit scattered pages, jargon and adverts.
This week, on results day, we released the fix: a free, complete, honest guide to getting into the industry, with free mentoring from working directors attached. Housebuilders and contractors are linked throughout, employers are joining to list their apprenticeships and placements free, and nothing on it is an advert or ever will be: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
The ask is simple and costs nothing. Have your team look at it, and if it stands up, put it in front of the programmes and communications MHCLG already runs, because every additional entrant it produces is capacity for your housing targets. I would gladly bring the employers behind it to a conversation with your officials, and I have copied your housing minister separately.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Matthew Pennycook MPMinister of State for Housing and Planning, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentNo reply yet
You have spent two years unblocking the planning system, and the next constraint on the pipeline is people. The CITB forecasts a need for 206,000 additional construction workers between 2026 and 2030, and consented schemes do not build themselves.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction. This week, on results day, we released a free, complete guide to getting into the industry: what it actually is, all six routes in, what apprentices are really paid, and free mentoring from working directors, matched personally. No advertising, no charge: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. Employers are joining it to list apprenticeships, junior roles and placements free, and existing initiatives are connecting into it as one shared front door.
Every accelerated consent your reforms produce needs a workforce behind it, and the cheapest part of building that workforce is telling people the industry exists. The ask: have your officials look at the page, link it where MHCLG already talks about housing delivery and skills, and tell us what is missing. Anything wrong gets fixed within the week. I would welcome fifteen minutes whenever the diary allows.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Lucy Powell MPSecretary of State for Education, Department for EducationNo reply yet
As a Manchester MP you will know better than most what construction employment means to the North West, and as Education Secretary you inherit the pipeline that feeds it. I am writing with a free resource for your schools and colleges, released this week on results day.
The CITB says construction needs 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030. The routes your department has built are genuinely strong: three construction T Levels with 45 day industry placements, apprenticeships from foundation to degree level. The failure is downstream of policy. Careers provision rarely covers construction properly, most families have never heard of a degree apprenticeship, and the application windows catch students out every single year because the big schemes recruit in the autumn for the following September.
So we built the explanation: a free, complete, honest guide covering what the industry actually is, all six routes, real apprentice pay, which university courses are accredited and why the placement year matters, plus free one to one mentoring from working construction directors, matched personally, with parental awareness required for under 18s. Nothing on it is an advert: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. It maps directly onto the Gatsby benchmarks on employer encounters and experiences of workplaces.
Two offers, both free. Your careers teams, schools and colleges can use the guide and the mentoring service as their own resource. And we will present to students anywhere: in person across the North West, online nationally, honestly and with working directors alongside. My ask is simply that your team looks at it and, if it stands up, puts it in front of the system.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Cat Smith MPMember of Parliament for Lancaster and Wyre, House of CommonsNo reply yet
I am writing as a constituent. I live in Catterall, just outside Garstang, and run Lechley Associates from here, a retained executive search firm working across UK construction.
This week, on A level results day, we released something I have wanted to exist for years: a free, complete, honest guide to getting into the construction industry. Every route in, from apprenticeships that need no grades to degree apprenticeships where the employer pays the fees, what each route really pays, and free one to one mentoring from working construction directors, matched personally. Nothing on it is an advert and nothing is sold: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
The reason it matters here is local as much as national. The CITB says the industry needs 206,000 additional workers by 2030, and Lancashire has both the young people and the training infrastructure, with colleges on our doorstep already running construction courses, yet most school leavers and parents in the constituency have never had the industry explained to them. The routes are excellent and invisible.
Three asks. First, would you share the guide with schools and colleges across Lancaster and Wyre, and with your constituency networks, as a free careers resource. Second, I would welcome the chance to meet you, at a surgery or otherwise, to show you what we have built and what employers here tell us about the skills gap. Third, if it stands up to your scrutiny, I would be grateful if you raised it with the Skills Minister, Baroness Smith, to whom I have written separately.
We will happily present to any school or community group in the constituency, free, at any point this autumn.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Heidi Alexander MPSecretary of State for Transport, Department for TransportNo reply yet
Every scheme in your roads and rail pipeline shares one input the contracts cannot procure: people. The CITB forecasts that construction needs 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030, and infrastructure competes for every one of them.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction and infrastructure. This week we released a free, complete guide to getting into the industry, including the client side programmes, with free mentoring from working directors attached. No advertising, no charge: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. National Highways, Network Rail, HS2 and TfL early careers schemes are already signposted on it.
The ask costs nothing: have your team look at it, link it where your delivery bodies talk about careers, and tell us what is missing. Every additional entrant is delivery capacity for your programme dates. I would welcome fifteen minutes with the relevant official.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Miatta Fahnbulleh MPSecretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroNo reply yet
The clean power build out, the nuclear programme and the grid upgrades your department is driving are, on the ground, construction and civil engineering projects, and the industry that delivers them needs 206,000 additional workers by 2030 on the CITB's numbers. Workforce, not ambition, is the constraint that slips dates.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction and infrastructure. This week we released a free, complete guide to getting into the industry, with free mentoring from working directors attached and the major energy programmes, Sizewell C among them, signposted for early careers. Nothing on it is an advert: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
The ask: have your team look at it, point your delivery partners and communications at it where useful, and tell us what is wrong so we can fix it within the week. Your construction minister, Blair McDougall, shares a foot in your department, and I have written to him separately.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Emma Reynolds MPChief Secretary to the Treasury, HM TreasuryNo reply yet
Every pound of capital spending you allocate assumes an industry with the people to build what it buys. On the CITB's numbers, construction needs 206,000 additional workers between 2026 and 2030, and the pipeline's credibility rests on closing that gap.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction. The cheapest intervention in the entire skills debate is information, and this week we made it at no cost to the public purse: a free, complete, honest guide to getting into the industry, with free mentoring from working directors, released on results day. Nothing on it is an advert: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. Employers are joining it to list apprenticeships and placements free.
The ask is one thought and one look. The thought: when the next spending settlement talks about construction skills, information is infrastructure too, and this piece of it is already built. The look: have your officials examine the page and tell us what would make it more useful to the government's delivery assumptions.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
The Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MPSecretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and TradeNo reply yet
Construction is a £142bn industry, around six per cent of everything the UK economy makes, and on the CITB's numbers it needs 206,000 additional workers by 2030. No industrial strategy survives contact with that gap unaddressed.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction. This week, on results day, we released a free, complete, honest guide to getting into the industry: all six routes in, real apprentice pay, and free mentoring from working directors, matched personally. No advertising, no charge: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction. Employers, from tier ones to the SMEs who train half the industry's apprentices, are joining it as one shared front door, and I have written separately to your construction minister, Blair McDougall.
The ask: have your team look at it, reference it where the industrial strategy and sector work touch construction skills, and send us corrections, which will be made within the week. I would gladly bring employer voices to any roundtable where the labour market behind your jobs plans is on the table.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Andrew Western MPMinister for Employment, Department for Work and PensionsReplied 21 August 2026
A large share of the 206,000 additional construction workers the CITB says we need by 2030 will not be school leavers. They will be adults changing careers, and your employment programmes meet them every day.
I run a retained executive search firm in UK construction. This week we released a free, complete guide to getting into the industry that was written for exactly those conversations: it includes the straight in and work up route, the CSCS card and health and safety test that get someone through a site gate, the foundation apprenticeship for those without grades, and free mentoring from working directors. Plenty of the best site managers in the country came in late from other industries, and the guide says so plainly. Nothing on it is an advert: community.lechley.com/get-into-construction.
The ask: have your team look at it as a resource for work coaches and employment programmes, particularly for adults considering a move into a sector that is actively short of people, and tell us what would make it more useful on the front line. With the skills brief now shared between your department and education, I have also written to Baroness Smith.
Yours sincerely, Scott Lechley. Enc: An open invitation to UK construction.
Thank you for your recent letter, contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and sharing details of your guide to careers in the UK construction industry. The letter was forwarded to this team as we manage some of the approaches from external organisations into DWP.
We welcome initiatives that aim to support people into employment and appreciate the work that has gone into developing this resource.
Decisions about the resources used by Work Coaches and employment programmes are subject to operational and policy considerations and are not determined through this route.
However, we recognise that information which helps people understand career opportunities and pathways into employment may be of interest to colleagues working in employment support and labour market-related activities. We will therefore share the information you have provided with relevant teams for their awareness and consideration, although we cannot guarantee that the resource will be reviewed, adopted or promoted.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in supporting people into employment within the construction sector.
Government has the letters. The industry has the invitation.
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