Universal Studios Bedford is due to open its gates in just six years after a deal was brokered between the American company, the government and the local council.
The resort is projected to create 28,000 jobs – including 20,000 in construction and a further 8,000 permanent roles at the park – and it is expected to generate nearly £50 billion for the economy by 2055.
But construction experts have questioned whether the project will be finished by 2031 due to UK planning rules, acute labour shortages and the need to develop wider infrastructure networks.
Patrick Hickey, director at Make NW, a development management consultancy, said the six-year turnaround will be “challenging” due to “how long major large-scale regeneration in the country is taking at the moment, particularly pre-construction”.
He added that the project also requires development of roads, railways and buses to “keep the pressure off the local highway and infrastructure network”. These projects will also need to go through planning.
He told The i Paper: “The challenge for government is going to be sorting out the planning and removing those blockages to allow construction work to get on.
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“But the challenge in the UK is that we are hamstrung by delays in the planning system.”
The government has set an ambitious target to build 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament but that pledge is already in doubt due to a shortage of skilled workers.
This problem will be exacerbated by the development of major infrastructure like Universal, and other green-lit projects including airport expansions.
“This situation is quite different from larger road or rail projects, which tend to have a broader impact,” he said.
‘Acute’ shortages of steelworkers and builders
Experts have raised concerns that acute labour shortages in the construction industry could threaten the delivery of major projects like Universal’s new theme park, warning that without urgent investment in skills and training, the sector may struggle to meet growing demand.
He said: “To deliver new homes and infrastructure projects, there needs to be a significant increase in the number of people entering the industry and more needs to be done to retain them once they’re trained.
Hickey, of Make NW, said that there are “acute” labour shortages in specific areas of the construction supply chain, including brickwork, steel manufacture steel erection, which could have a “knock-on impact” on other local building projects.
Brown said: “There will be significant interest in participating in a project of this nature and scale, however, not many contractors will have the capacity to manage it unless the packages are broken down.
The Government has been contacted for comment.
UK short of 25,000 bricklayers
The i Paper previously revealed that 25,000 bricklayers, 3,000 extra plumbers, 4,000 additional plasterers, 10,000 more carpenters, and 3,000 new electricians would be needed to meet the Government’s ambitious housing pledge, according to figures from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).
Homebuilding Skills Hubs, created to train up the next generation of construction workers through 5,000 apprenticeship places, were a welcome part of the Government’s flagship housing scheme.
But industry insiders warned that even with the fast-track training, the UK’s workforce will still be too small to plug an estimated gap of between 250,000 and 300,000 workers due to the scaling up of the annual housebuilding target.
The Government has said the shortage of construction workers in the UK is a result of “years of underinvestment in skills”.
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