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READ THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HERE
Many EU countries today are gearing up to automate certain aspects of the construction sector. The real problem with the EU housing system, however, is not specifically a workforce issue, but the way the EU’s rules deeply, viciously affect the ability to build sufficient homes.
As this report investigates, with plenty of examples, several factors prevent the EU from building new houses quickly - including immigration, materials prices and labour availability. The authors show that population pressures push the number of new homes needed ever upwards, while inflation and skills shortages affect the industry’s capacity to build them.
The main focus of the report is to explore the impact of lesser acknowledged factors – sustainability policy and environmental restraint - that are having an impact on housing provision and the output of the construction industry more broadly. On a philosophical and policy level, environmentally restrictive practices and limits to the growth of material ambition are exacerbating the problem across Europe.
The impact of carbon-reduction and energy-saving is adding costs to house building that are hitting poorer countries hardest.
About the authors
Austin Williams is an architect, director of the Future Cities Project and founder of the mantownhuman manifesto featured in Penguin Classics’ 100 Artists Manifestos. He is the author of China’s Urban Revolution and New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future.
Zhanet Mishineva is an architect, practising in London for over five years. She is associate director at Clive Chapman Architects and runs residential and commercial projects in London and Windsor at various scales across all RIBA Work stages.
