Local authorities trades’ pay dispute: housing maintenance risks for project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
More than 1,000 local authority craftworkers on the red book agreement, mainly plumbing and heating engineers in housing maintenance, will be balloted for strike action across seven councils – Durham, Leeds, Stoke, Dudley, Southwark, Newham and Bristol – between 19 February and 26 March. The dispute centres on the Local Government Association’s “full and final” 3.2% 2025 pay offer, removal of apprentices from the national agreement, and placing new entrants on the same scale as qualified craft operatives. Prolonged action could significantly delay responsive repairs and planned maintenance on council housing stock in the affected areas.
Technical Brief
- Red book craftworkers covered include plumbing and heating engineers delivering day-to-day council housing maintenance.
- Unite alleges the LGA’s 3.2% 2025 offer is “below RPI” and imposed without negotiation.
- LGA’s removal of apprentices from the national agreement disrupts structured progression pipelines for housing maintenance trades.
- Proposal to place new entrants on the same pay scale as qualified craft operatives collapses skill-based differentials.
- LGA is also seeking to impose NJC job evaluation, which Unite fears could downgrade roles and pay.
- Unite accuses the LGA of refusing to honour the disputes process by repeatedly rejecting formal talks.
- GMB has accepted the 3.2% offer, creating a split bargaining position across local government craft grades.
- National Employers warn the ballot will further delay payment of the “long-overdue” 3.2% award to all craftworkers.
Our Take
With 729 Infrastructure stories in our database, relatively few focus on UK local authority labour disputes, so this 3.2% 2025 pay offer positions councils as a cost-pressure hotspot rather than a typical capital-project risk item.
The concentration of Unite and GMB ballots across authorities such as Durham, Leeds, Bristol and London boroughs signals that any coordinated action could hit multiple concurrent projects, complicating procurement and delivery schedules for civils and maintenance frameworks.
Because the 3.2% award is framed as ‘long-overdue’ by National Employers, contractors working for these councils are likely to face knock-on expectations for similar uplifts from their own directly employed trades, affecting bid pricing on 2025–26 frameworks.
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.
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