The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has advanced its review of the Temporary Shortage List (TSL), a targeted migration route designed to help address short-term labour shortages in critical sectors. The committee’s Stage 1 report, published on 9 October (Temporary Shortage List: Stage 1 report), set out the occupations facing the most acute pressures and has now triggered a second phase of work.
FIS responded to this initial call for evidence and has submitted the below high level response as part of the Temporary Shortage Occupation List consultation.
This response outlines the current workforce challenges, recruitment needs, and skills gaps within the sector, with a particular focus on plastering, dry-lining, and ceiling trades.
———————————————————-
FIS response to the Temporary Shortage Occupation List consultation
The Finishes and Interiors sector is experiencing persistent shortages of skilled tradespeople, particularly dryliners, plasterers, and ceiling fixers. These shortages are exacerbated by multiple factors:
- Insufficient apprenticeships: Current apprenticeship starts and completions in plastering and interior systems are well below the levels required to replace retiring workers and meet growing demand.
- An ageing workforce: A significant proportion of experienced tradespeople are approaching retirement, leading to a rapid reduction in available skilled labour.
- Reduced availability of skilled migrant workers: Post-Brexit immigration changes have limited the traditional source of experienced tradespeople, intensifying pressure on the domestic labour supply.
Our (FIS) recent House Building Trade Contractors Survey demonstrates the severity of labour pressures in the sector, with 94% of companies expressing concern about labour shortages over the next 12 months. Only 6% of respondents reported no concern, highlighting that almost all members anticipate challenges in recruiting and retaining skilled tradespeople. The survey findings reflect widespread anxiety across the industry, particularly for key finishing trades such as plasterers, dryliners, and ceiling fixers, and underscore the urgent need for both short-term and long-term interventions, including expanded training, upskilling, and targeted recruitment initiatives.
Ceiling fixers were previously excluded from government shortage lists, largely due to classification issues under older Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes, which grouped ceiling installation under broader interior systems categories. As a result, earlier assessments underestimated the true demand for specialist ceiling installation skills.
Qualifications in the sector:
- Plasterers: NVQ/RQF Level 3 Diplomas covering advanced internal and external plastering, rendering, dry-lining, and heritage/fibrous work, providing recognised craft-level competence and progression pathways.
- Ceiling fixers: Level 3 NVQ Diploma in Interior Systems (Construction), covering advanced suspended ceilings, partitions, and complex interior systems. While this provides a pathway to higher-level skills, availability remains limited compared to plastering.
- Level 4–5 NVQs: These focus on supervisory and management roles, such as site supervision or project management, but do not provide hands-on technical skill development for operative roles.
Some headline data to support this is as follows:
- The finishes and interiors sector employs approx. 266,000 people UK-wide, but needs 6,000 new recruits each year to maintain current capacity.
- More broadly, UK construction must recruit around 48,000–50,000 extra workers annually across all trades to meet forecast demand, highlighting the critical recruitment challenge in finishing trades.
Slow apprenticeship uptake, driven by fluctuations in employer investment, where recruitment slows during downturns, has created a bottleneck in the workforce pipeline. As a result, the number of trainees entering finishing trades such as plastering, dry-lining, and ceiling installation is insufficient to meet current and projected demand. With workloads expected to rise sharply in Q3–Q4 next year, the sector faces a critical gap, apprentices starting now will not be fully trained in time to address the upcoming surge in work, exacerbating existing skills shortages and putting project delivery at risk.
Ongoing engagement with industry will take place between now and 2 February 2026 to complete the evidence required for the MAC review.
If members have views or feedback, please do get in touch with beenanana@thefis.org