What happened

Accountancy firm RSM has warned that government plans across housing, defence and energy risk colliding in 2028 and 2029, placing demands on the construction workforce and supply chain that the industry may not be able to meet, Construction News reported this week ahead of the Autumn Budget on 28 October. Kelly Boorman, RSM UK's head of construction, said an increased pipeline across all sectors in those years "could place significant constraints on the supply chain and workforce" and would make delivery of major projects "impossible should they be mobilised alongside one another".

RSM's analysis points to defence infrastructure as a particular driver of demand, noting that spending commitments will "drive demand for essential infrastructure, requiring significant construction expertise", though clarity is still needed on timing, with most defence programmes not expected to be "shovel ready" until 2027. On energy and housing, RSM said government commitments to defence and energy infrastructure will create demand for storage, distribution, logistics and manufacturing capacity, but warned that "challenges remain around the potential timeline of contract awards, mobilisation of projects, and the capacity of the supply chain and workforce to deliver". Housebuilders, meanwhile, are said to remain cautious about raising housing starts until demand volumes become more predictable, casting doubt over whether government housing targets are achievable.

Why it matters

This is a different kind of warning to the ones that have dominated 2026: rather than too little work, the risk flagged here is too much work landing at once, across sectors that all draw on the same pool of skilled labour, quantity surveyors, planners, civil engineers and groundworkers. If housing, defence and energy programmes all move from paper to site in the same 18 month window, the bottleneck will not be funding, it will be people.

What it means for your career

For anyone currently weighing up which sector to specialise in, this is a signal to watch the government's spending allocation at the Budget on 28 October closely. Defence infrastructure, in particular, is being flagged as a sector that will need specialist construction expertise it does not yet have in depth, which should make security-cleared civils and M&E experience increasingly valuable over the next two to three years. Energy infrastructure, especially storage, distribution and logistics facilities tied to grid expansion, is another area RSM expects to draw heavily on the workforce.

If RSM's warning plays out, 2028 and 2029 could be strong years to be a QS, planner or project manager with experience across more than one of these sectors, since contractors who can move people flexibly between housing, defence and energy work will have an advantage over those who cannot. The flip side is a tighter market for everyone else: if the pipeline really does swell as RSM expects, expect wage pressure and counter-offers to intensify for anyone with transferable delivery experience, well before 2028 arrives.