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Labours goal of building 1.5 million more homes is endangered by a "crisis" in construction as legions of workers prepare to retire. One in three builders is now over the age of 50 and more than 130,000 are 65-plus, according to an analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

It claims the Government cannot hit its homebuilding target without 161,000 more people in the construction workforce. But it states there are 500,000 fewer construction workers today than at the time of the 2008 financial crash. The respected think tank warns of a "perfect storm of a workforce that is both ageing fast and failing to train young blood".

The CSJ blasts governments for "attempting to 'plug gaps' through immigration". The number of construction workers aged 65-plus has soared from 49,361 in 2008 to 130,791. By 2050, the average age of a worker will be over 46. Meanwhile, the number of 16-24-year-olds working in construction has fallen by more than 150,000 since 2008.

The CSJ warns of a "monumental challenge for the construction industry," stating: "Skills shortages already cripple the sector, and thousands of workers are on the cusp of retiring. Yet our nation's future economic growth depends on it."

It found that "construction employment has fallen to its lowest proportion of total UK employment in over 100 years". It claims "the reliance on migration has contributed to a failure to tackle the root causes of the domestic construction workforce's long-term decline", with its researchers condemning a "broken education and training system which fails to equip learners with the skills they need to enter employment".

The think tank is putting forward a raft of proposals, including an effective tax cut worth 30% of a young construction workers' salary. It also wants young people to be able to study construction as a GCSE.

Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice said: "Labour's delusional 1.5 million homes pledge completely unachievable - killed by their own reckless open-borders immigration policy and their total neglect of training British workers. The mass importation of cheap foreign labour that our economy has become addicted to whilst leaving our own people unskilled has made large-scale housebuilding almost impossible."

Josh Nicholson, a senior researcher with the CSJ, warned of a workforce in "near terminal decline" but and said the proposals were said "a plan to turns this crisis around".

He said: "Unless the Government and industry can work together to reverse these trends, then it is highly unlikely Britain will be able to build the housing and infrastructure it so desperately needs."

Labour MP Jonathan Hinder said: "Britain's prosperity depends on its construction workforce, yet we lack workers by the thousands... Thousands of working-class young people, especially boys, could have their life chances transformed through a rewarding career in construction if we get this right."

Conservative MP Gareth Bacon said: "Labour's record on housebuilding is abysmal. They have delivered fewer homes than the Conservatives managed during a global pandemic.

"Everyone already knew Labour's much-trumpeted 1.5m homes target was a total fiction. And that has just been reinforced by the news they are relying on an ageing cohort of construction workers.

"Only the Conservatives will deliver the homes Britain needs, including by abolishing stamp duty to unfreeze the housing market, and boosting opportunities in construction as part of our plan to double apprenticeships."