Berkeley skills exodus warning: delivery and safety implications for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Berkeley Group reported half-year revenue of £1.18bn and pre-tax profit of £254m to 31 October 2025, both down less than 8%, with net cash at £342m after £132m of share buy-backs and net asset value per share up 5% to £37.63. Chief executive Richard Stearn said highly competitive tendering and subdued housing activity, particularly in London, have kept build costs flat despite National Living Wage and National Insurance increases. He warned that Building Safety Regulator Gateway 2 delays, weak new starts and stalled live projects are straining the supply chain and risk driving experienced trades out of the sector.
Technical Brief
- Berkeley reports “highly competitive tendering across most trades” as contractors chase limited near-term work.
- Subdued housing and wider construction activity is reported as most acute in London schemes.
- Flat build costs are attributed to competitive pricing offsetting wage and National Insurance uplifts and stable materials.
- Prolonged weakness in new project starts and delayed live projects is described as placing “financial strain” on the supply chain.
- Berkeley explicitly links regulatory delays and low workload to risk of experienced trades and supervisors exiting the sector.
- The group states it is working “closely with its trusted partners” to maintain delivery capability under the new safety regime.
Our Take
Berkeley Group is one of the few UK-focused names in our 205 Infrastructure stories where net cash (here £342m) and ongoing share buy-backs coexist with warnings about supply-chain skills loss, signalling that even well-capitalised London developers expect labour and competence constraints to bite on programme and safety obligations.
Across the 532 Projects/Safety-tagged pieces, most UK safety discussions centre on regulatory compliance or incident response; Berkeley’s engagement with the Building Safety Regulator against a backdrop of falling revenue and profit suggests developers may start explicitly pricing regulatory-driven skills scarcity into tendering and subcontractor selection.
Guidance of £450m pre-tax profit into 2026 and FY27, despite a 7–8% dip in recent earnings, implies Berkeley is planning for margin protection through tighter control of its UK and London supply chain, which could accelerate consolidation among smaller contractors that cannot absorb the cost of higher safety and competence standards.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
