The City of London Corporation has launched a new hub dedicated to addressing the green skills gap in London’s commercial built environment.
The Corporation has been supported by, among others, FIS, with Iain McIlwee, CEO of FIS, serving on the main Taskforce and having led the initial work on understanding barriers to growing this workforce.
The ‘Skyline Skills Hub’ is a platform that will enable the Square Mile’s growing workforce to meet the challenges of decarbonising the City, produced by the City of London Corporation’s Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce. It will showcase the best practice for sustainable green skills and enable workers, employers, and policy makers across the sector to attract, upskill, reskill, and diversify the people needed to ensure the delivery of sustainable buildings for the future.
Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 76% of emissions in London alone. Retrofitting older buildings has become critical to the decarbonisation agenda, with 95% of emissions from the built environment over the next 30 years expected to come from existing buildings.
Through innovative resources and a commitment to sustainability, the Skyline Skills Hub will drive the transformation necessary to secure London’s global leadership in sustainable commercial property. The Hub will offer free access to resources from across the built environment sector, including careers guides, case studies, and research such as the Skyline Skills Recommendations Report.
By facilitating easy access to green skills information, the Hub will equip the workforce, policy makers, and new entrants with the sustainable green skills needed, to address the skills gap. The Hub will also facilitate collaboration between businesses, training providers, and the Government to realise these objectives, estimating a 29% higher hiring rate for those equipped with these new green skills.
Central London urgently needs a larger skilled workforce to decarbonise its commercial buildings to achieve the City Corporation’s Net Zero targets by 2040 and retain its world-leading financial and professional services sector. To achieve these sustainability goals, an estimated 26,000 additional built environment workers will be needed in Greater London by 2026.
Recognising this, the City of London Corporation launched the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce in 2022, to boost the supply of skilled workers for sustainable buildings, by bringing together employers, training providers, and industry bodies from across the commercial built environment sector, as well as national and local government.
Chairman of the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce, Keith Bottomley, said: “Central London’s skyline is constantly growing, and we must ensure our workforce is equipped with the necessary skills and qualifications to build structures that are sustainable. The Skyline Skills Hub aims to highlight the best career and training opportunities that the built environment sector has to offer.
“Looking ahead, we want to expand this crucial work beyond London and to support the upgrading of skilled workforces across the UK’s cities, and support skills for the residential built environment. We want the UK to have the best workforce to deliver sustainable commercial buildings for tomorrow. Together, we can make it happen.”
UK Head of Sustainability at JLL, Emma Hoskyn, said: “We spend most of our lives in buildings, but we seldom consider the workforce needed to design, build and maintain them. JLL UK have been involved in the City of London Corporation’s Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce since its formation in 2022, as we recognise that the industry needs to do more to upskill the workforce to deliver the low carbon, sustainable buildings required in Central London.
“Today’s launch of the Skyline Taskforce’s highly anticipated Skyline Skills Hub is an industry-created source of guidance for employers, the workforce, and new entrants, showing how they can contribute to creating buildings that support people and planet. The Hub clearly shows why the built environment is a valuable sector in which to launch and grow a fulfilling, long-term career that will contribute to a more sustainable future.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the City of London into 2025 on the next phase of work, to help share this important new resource with the wider built environment so that we can access the green skilled workforce which London urgently needs.”
Howard Dawber, Deputy Mayor for Business and Growth said: “The green economy is an exciting, growing sector for London, with jobs in areas from finance to the built environment. It’s vital that all Londoners, regardless of their background, are given the opportunity to develop the skills they need to secure the green jobs of the future.
“The new Skyline Skills Hub will be key in delivering this ambition, raising awareness of good jobs and training opportunities in the sector, both for those entering the labour market and those looking to upskill.
“The Hub will support Londoners to access training and good careers in our built environment sector and ensure businesses get the expertise they need to thrive, as we build a greener, fairer, and more prosperous London for everyone.”
