Government Senator Kavan Gayle has warned that despite billions of dollars being available for investment in housing and infrastructure work, rebuilding could be stymied by a shortage of skilled carpenters, masons, electricians, and plumbers to keep pace with development.

Speaking in the Senate on Friday during the debate on the National Housing Trust (Amendment) (Special Provisions) Act 2026 — which extends the Government’s authority to transfer $11.4 billion annually from the NHT to the Consolidated Fund for another five years — Gayle argued that, while financing remains essential to housing delivery, a worsening shortage of skilled construction workers is emerging as one of the biggest obstacles to achieving Jamaica’s development goals.

Gayle warned that even when funding is available and contractors have been secured, projects can struggle to move forward because there are not enough workers to do the job.

“So everywhere financing is available, and contractors are secured, [but] projects cannot proceed efficiently without sufficient skilled workers, and so you have this shortage in relation to the number of carpenters, masons, steel workers, electricians, plumbers, and the finishers…it would have caused a delay…of certain projects.

“A delay in project completion, difficulty in staffing multiple projects at the same time. It would have caused a reduced productivity, and you might even have quality assurance challenges [and] we would have seen it in some of the projects,” Gayle said.

His intervention shifted attention away from the political debate surrounding the NHT draw down and towards what he suggested is a deeper structural problem affecting both housing construction and wider national development.

According to Gayle, Jamaica has embarked on an aggressive housing expansion programme in recent years while simultaneously pursuing major roadworks, tourism projects, public infrastructure upgrades, and post-disaster reconstruction efforts.

He argued that those competing demands are placing increasing pressure on an already stretched labour pool.

The veteran trade unionist attributed the shortage of qualified workers to a combination of factors, including the migration of skilled workers overseas, an ageing workforce, and insufficient numbers of graduates entering the industry.

“You know, construction employees are nomadic in nature, so they move from one development to another. You create a development and they would move to that development. But then you have others, and so the shortage is driven by several factors [such as] the migration of skilled workers overseas, because if these workers have an opportunity and they are skilled workers, they’re going to move to a space to which we cannot really compete,” he told the Senate.

Government Senator Kavan Gayle makes his contribution to Friday’s Senate debate on the National Housing Trust (Amendment) (Special Provisions) Act, 2026, during which he warned that Jamaica’s housing and infrastructure ambitions are being threatened by a shortage of skilled construction workers.

Gayle also suggested that some employers may be contributing to the problem by prioritising experienced workers rather than helping to develop newly trained entrants into the industry.

“There are some developers who are employers who want what I consider ready-made. They don’t want to take those graduates coming from institutions. They want the experience, but the experience comes with a particular price…and because of that level of experience they are valuable elsewhere,” he said.

Gayle argued that addressing the labour shortage will require a more coordinated national response involving government agencies, employers, labour representatives, and training institutions.

Among his proposals is the creation of a dedicated partnership between the NHT and HEART/NSTA Trust aimed at producing workers with the specific skills required by the housing sector.

“To address this challenge, and [Education] Minister [Dana] Morris Dixon is here, consideration should be given to some sort of a formal partnership between the NHT and the HEART Trust in creating a more dedicated construction trades programme aligned to the trust’s housing demands,” Gayle said.

He noted that the NHT reported surpassing its housing delivery targets and has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in housing development over recent years.

But Gayle warned that funding alone will not solve the country’s housing challenges if workforce shortages remain unaddressed.

He also raised concerns about what he described as outdated contractor classifications and procurement limits, arguing that rising construction costs have reduced the effectiveness of existing thresholds and limited the pool of contractors able to participate in projects.

Gayle said revising those limits could help broaden participation in housing development and improve delivery capacity even as he maintained that labour shortages remain among the most pressing concerns facing the sector.

“If Jamaica is to meet its long-term housing targets and broaden infrastructure ambitions…we need the skills in pursuing that, and the reality is that we must continue investing heavily on training and certification and workforce development,” said Gayle.