The government faces “significant risks” to delivering its promise of 60,000 new construction workers by 2029, a spending watchdog report has warned. This includes how potential workers, training providers and employers respond to its £650 million “construction skills package” announced in March 2025, following the Labour government’s pledge to build 1.5 million more homes over the next three years. The package includes £98 million for an industry placements programme, £100 million for construction focused skills bootcamps, and £38 million for new foundation apprenticeships, as well as a cross government and industry “constructions skills mission board” set up to help address sector challenges. Estimates of additional construction workers created by the package that have been shared with the National Audit Office (NAO) include 25,600, or 42 per cent of the total, through the industry placement programme, 15,900, or 26 per cent, through skills bootcamps, and 10,000, or 16 per cent, through foundation apprenticeships. But an NAO report published today warned that the initiatives’ success is “uncertain” due to a reliance on employer confidence, which is facing “challenging trading conditions”. Internal assessments of the package’s show wavering confidence since the package’s announcement in March 2025, with confidence falling to ‘red’, or unlikely, in October due to delays in agreeing policy decisions about the industry placement initiative, agreeing devolution arrangements with the Treasury, and “staffing shortages”. This red rating came a month after the machinery of government change saw responsibility for the package handed to the Department for Work and Pensions from the Department for Education. Since April the rating has been at ‘amber’, or probable, following external “advisory support” brought in by the DWP to help agree an internal “portfolio reporting approach” ahead of most initiatives starting. The government is moving closer to publishing updates on the package’s progress, the NAO said. The government audit body recommended that the DWP and DfE, which both have responsibilities for initiatives, should “strengthen” how they oversee the package and maximise value for money. They should also consider how to respond to “lower-than-expected” performance data and provide “greater transparency” about how the programme is progressing through annual updates. Government estimates suggest that 317,000 more workers will be needed to meet the 1.5 million new homes pledge, 130,000 for the plan to upgrade five million homes with solar panels and heat pumps, and 445,000 for new infrastructure such as schools, prisons and hospitals. However, in the 2025-26 academic year, as at April 2026, only 74 learners started foundation apprenticeships, against the DWP’s assumption of 1,000 for the full year. Other initiatives in the package include £90 million for an enhanced high value course premium for construction and safety training, £75 million for free courses for jobs courses, £100 million for construction technical excellence colleges, and £80 million for project-based capital investment. The NAO noted a lack of evidence about whether initiatives such as construction technical excellence colleges and the teacher and industry exchange programme are effective. But it said the government is taking “sensible steps” to develop them, including a “co-design” approach to technical excellence colleges and sharing best practice while the exchange programme is being tested from “ground up”. However, hopes that 25,600 more workers will come through the industry exchange programme are “ambitious”, they added. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the public accounts committee, said: “Today’s NAO report sets out the scale of the challenge for the construction sector: delivering the government’s ambitions would mean an unprecedented expansion of the construction workforce. “As a chartered surveyor, I see first-hand a sector already stretched by acute skills shortages, high vacancy rates and an ageing workforce. “While the £625 million package to train up to 60,000 workers is welcome, this alone will not be enough: we will ultimately need hundreds of thousands more workers in the sector. Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “The government is taking action to address shortage of skilled construction workers as part of its ambitious commitments for housing, infrastructure and energy efficiency. “Success will depend on employers having the confidence and capability to offer placements, apprenticeships and jobs.”