“Plumbing is a profession that is struggling when it comes to attracting and training new workers. Kids just aren’t interested in plumbing.”

The UK is in danger of running so low on plumbers that the country faces the biggest crisis in 20 years, say heating and boiler specialists Warm.co.uk.

Warm.co.uk say the government needs to act now. The consequences for consumers and businesses in the UK could be very serious if they don’t..

Unless we train more plumbers, say Warm.co.uk, we could face a future where emergency call-outs could take 3 weeks in large cities, putting health and businesses in danger.

Spokesperson Jonathan Ratcliffe from Warm.co.uk said: “Plumbing is a profession that is neglected when it comes to attracting and training new workers. Kids just aren’t that interested in plumbing.”

“Unless we urgently address this problem, we’re looking at a crisis. With far too few plumbers to meet the demands of growing domestic and business areas around the UK.

“It’s not too late to address this, but the solution needs to be drastic, immediate, and preferably government-led.

“If we don’t do anything about this problem, we’re going to see terrible waiting times even for emergency work.  As well as hugely inflated prices for those who have the money. Leaving those who don’t in an even worse situation.”

Taking Measures to Recruit Plumbers

Warm.co.uk recommend measures that could ensure we have enough plumbers to avoid the problems a crisis could cause.

This includes offering incentives for students to go straight into apprenticeships/training for the profession. This could mean they can begin working very soon after education.

Plumbing business owner Stephen, 43, welcomed the call from Warm.co.uk, saying: “I’m the only plumbing business serving quite a large area.” We do what we can but there are always more jobs to do than there are hours in the day.

“You might think we’d be happy with that and annoyed if lots of  people started working as plumbers, but that’s just not true. We struggle to recruit. I hate letting people down by not being able to come out sooner.  I’d ideally like to expand business by employing more people. There are three of us at the moment and I can’t find anyone else even though the workload is growing.”

The average salary for plumbers in the UK is upwards of £23,000. This could rise to over £37,000 depending on experience and location. Warm.co.uk hope that the Government can use this relatively high wage to entice young people into the profession.  Otherwise the cost to the UK will be far, far higher.