Workforce planning for clean heat

This report, produced by WPI Economics for the Aldersgate Group, The MCS Foundation, Phoenix Group, Santander UK, and the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, highlights significant opportunities to expand the heat pump workforce. It identifies around 76,000 roles in England with relevant skillsets – such as plumbers, pipefitters, manufacturing engineers, and electricians – indicating strong potential to scale up capacity in this sector.

However, many of those employed in these identified jobs are already in high-demand occupations, work in small businesses or as sole traders with limited capacity to retrain, or are approaching retirement. Without targeted investment in training and reskilling, competition for skilled labour could hinder progress towards the government’s ambition to upgrade five million homes by 2030.

It also makes recommendations to the government across three policy areas:

• Demand creation and strategic workforce planning
• Upskilling the existing workforce
• Expanding the pipeline of new workers