Contractors are being forced to dig deep to stop their site managers from being poached by predatory housebuilders, with those in London now commanding pay packets in excess of £60,000.
Salaries for senior site managers jumped 5% with those in London picking up an average of £66,000. according to Building’s 2018 Contractors Salary Survey which was carried out over the summer by Hays. Site managers in the capital pocketed £54,000 with the national average for the role jumping 4% to just over £45,500.
Other delivery-end roles have also been reaping the benefits of a tug-of-war for their skills, with contract managers seeing their pay packets rise by an average of 4% to £60,000, while project managers saw their incomes rise on average 3% to just over £55,000.
Cenkos analyst Kevin Cammack said housebuilders were picking off site managers from contractors in order to replace those poached by rivals. He said “To be honest I’m a little surprised the jump for site manager isn’t higher. When you get to that level the skills are more interchangeable with housebuilders and they (housebuilders) have been much more aggressive in terms of employment”. And he warned contractors would have to find even more cash to prevent their best staff from being wooed by housebuilding firms with deeper pockets.
“If you compare the number of professionals required on a housebuilding site with the number required to build a bridge or tower, its significantly less” he said. “It means housebuilders can afford to pay more, which does create an issue for contractors when there are positions that are transferable.