Brexit stirs problems but also ‘magical’ opportunities

David Taylor

Editor, NLQ and New London Weekly

Elsie Owusu OBE

Principal and Mayor’s Design Advocate
Elsie Owusu Architects

Leanne Tritton

Founder & Managing Director
ING Media

Martin Hitchin

Chief executive officer
REHAU Ltd

Stephen Barrett

Partner
RSHP

Tom Mather

Construction Director
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and Be First

Brexit stirs problems but also ‘magical’ opportunities

Brexit is causing significant, ongoing problems for the UK construction industry including a loss of skills, labour and difficulties getting materials through. But it also presents a ‘magical’ opportunity to ‘buy British’ and open up a new, diverse demographic to the property industry landscape who had been excluded before.

Those were some of the key thoughts to emerge from Brexit – the impact on architecture, engineering and construction, an NLA breakfast talk that sought to establish some of the major effects the 500-page deal between the EU and UK had had on the industries.

RSHP partner Stephen Barrett said that his own practice had opened a new office in Paris as ‘a direct consequence’ of Brexit and reflecting the long relationship it had enjoyed with the country for some 50 years.

‘What was seamless and easy and quick has become difficult and more friction-full and uncertain’, he said.

Sadly, UK architectural qualifications are no longer recognised, and while the architecture and development professions are optimistic by nature, and something ‘positive’ might be possible as an outcome, the efforts to get there are ‘unnecessary’. It was also ‘regrettable’ that future generations of architects from the continent who might have wished to work in London – a city that was seen as an inclusive and diverse magnet for talent – may not be able to do so. ‘It feels like a loss’, said Barrett, ‘and it’s always harder losing something that you once had, than moving towards something that you’re speaking about going forward with’.

Viewers of the webinar were polled about their attitudes to Brexit, revealing that 66% were negative, 30% neutral, and only 4% positive. And Rehau CEO Martin Hitchin said the deal had added ‘a huge amount of complexity’ to the businesses as well as delays and congestion at ports, plus increased costs. ‘I think the understatement of the year is that it is an unwanted distraction’, he said, even if consumer confidence remains ‘relatively positive’. But there was nevertheless a feeling that we will get through this, with some good support from European forums supporting the transition, said Hitchin, albeit alongside opportunism shown by accountancy firms charging £500 per hour on Brexit advice. There was also a debate about whether UK members are still valid in some trade associations, said Hitchin.

Be First construction director Tom Mather said it was a ‘terrible time’ for the construction industry to grapple with Brexit, not least because of his organsiation’s housebuilding pipeline and the ‘hazy’ details of the deal in the middle of a global pandemic. Brexit had caused a major loss of skilled labour because most qualified bricklayers are Europeans who had gone home over Christmas and have either not returned or had to self-isolate. Materials, too, had been massively delayed, and even Be First’s resorting to stockpiling had not solved the problem while prices are rising at around 3-4%. Hoever, looking to the positives, perhaps it was time to use more British suppliers, suggested Mather.

‘Why buy a kitchen from Italy when you can buy a kitchen from Worthing? Yes, it will cost more but you get rid of that uncertainty that means you don’t have to pay for the trip and that transfer of risk. I think that is a really big opportunity here to start buying British and start developing a supply chain’.

Elsie Owusu, principal at Elsie Owusu Architects suggested Covid and Brexit were ‘great disruptors’ but that she had started to see ‘a huge number of potential opportunities’ arising from the latter. These included increased digital ways of working, giving a boost to projects in Nigeria, Ghana and China that had been on the back burner for her firm, without the unnecessary travel time or carbon expenditure. The practice has also created a development company called Artist Constructor, but the biggest opportunity was perhaps for BAME architects winning work in places like Africa. ‘There's an opportunity to recognise talent that is home talent and is diverse talent’, said Owusu. I think diversity in the broadest sense is going to be almost a sort of coincidence of lockdown’. ‘We are all Europeans, but I think some of us have been thought to be more European than others, and I think it's now time to look around ourselves and broaden our scope and see the opportunities’.

There is a huge talent pool not just in the BAME community but in women who have left the workforce, she added.

The workforce can and should be diversified, but it was not necessary to do that with young apprentices. ‘It's a challenging time but it's also a magical time if we can make it work’.

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