Heat pump installation is the most sought-after green-collar construction skill across most UK regions, according to a new Turner & Townsend (T&T) report.
The consultancy’s 2024 International construction market survey, published last month, says that heat pump installers are ‘especially in demand’ on the back of a pick-up in government-funded residential retrofitting programmes.
The report also says that heat pump installation is ‘the most sought-after green skill in construction across the majority of UK regions’. In addition, green-collar operatives – which also include insulation and solar installers – are the highest-paid group of construction workers in the majority of regional cities surveyed by T&T.
In London, green-collar installers are paid around £70 per hour, which is more than site foremen, and two and a half times the £28 per hour that general labourers can command.
The report also says that UK construction faces an ‘escalating capacity crunch’, with real-estate development drawing on the same pool as major infrastructure programmes in clean energy.
