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Last edited 06 Feb 2026

Welsh and Scottish 2026 elections

1 Scottish and Welsh May elections
2 CIOB's Scottish Election Manifesto
- 2.1 CIOB manifesto priorities
3 RIAS Scottish Election Manifesto
- 3.1 RIAS manifesto priorities
4 CIOB's Welsh Election Manifesto
- 4.1 CIOB Welsh manifesto priorities
5 ECA's Welsh Election Manifesto
- 5.1 CIOB Welsh manifesto priorities
- 5.2 A Call to All Political Parties
6 The Builders' Manifesto for Wales 2026
7 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Scottish and Welsh May elections

The upcoming elections for both Wales and Scotland are due to be held on the same day this year, 7 May 2026. In preparation for this and their impact on the built environment CIOB has published a manifesto for Scotland, and a manifesto for Wales. The Electrical Contractors Association has also produced a manifesto for Wales which can be found here ECA launches Welsh Election Manifesto.

[edit] CIOB's Scottish Election Manifesto

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has published its manifesto ahead of the upcoming Scottish Election, due to be held on Thursday 7 May 2026. The manifesto sets out three clear priority areas where CIOB believes urgent, cross-portfolio action is needed from the next Scottish Government to better support the nation’s construction and built environment sector. The three priorities relate to retrofitting and energy efficiency, the construction skills gap, and building quality and safety.

In the manifesto, CIOB calls for more joined-up thinking across future Government departments to overcome ongoing issues caused by policy being developed in siloes, which it says have real-world consequences for the built environment sector, such as ineffective policies, slow delivery, and overinflated costs. They say these issues often mean poor outcomes for Scotland’s households as well as the environment, employers, and those aspiring to work in the industry.

Jocelyne Fleming, who leads CIOB’s Policy and Public Affairs work in Scotland, said:

“Scotland’s challenges in housing, climate change, and building safety are not the result of a lack of ambition. They are the result of systems that are not designed to deliver complex change at pace and scale. Our three key priorities, if addressed by the next Government, will go a long way toward cutting consumer energy bills and reducing rates of fuel poverty, decarbonising the built environment to meet climate targets, getting more people into work, and, crucially, ensuring everyone has a warm, safe home. Our manifesto, based in a fundamental shift to a system-wide approach to policymaking, outlines clear, tangible actions the next Government can take to move Scotland’s built environment policy from ambition to delivery.”

[edit] CIOB manifesto priorities

CIOB’s manifesto priorities for the next Scottish Government are:

[edit] Priority 1 - Retrofit and energy efficiency

Establish a Ministerial Oversight Group on Retrofit
Develop a National Retrofit Delivery and Resource Plan

[edit] Priority 2 - Skills in the construction sector

Develop a Construction Skills Action Plan which:

takes a long-term, demand-led view of skills needs across the built environment
aligns education policy, funding, and curriculum provision with delivery requirements
addresses barriers to apprenticeships for both employers and learners
supports upskilling of the existing workforce, including green and retrofit skills

[edit] Priority 3 - Building quality and safety

Establish clear frameworks for building safety and maintenance

Explore a demolition levy to fund urgent safety and maintenance works and incentivise repair, maintenance and improvement works, in addition to addressing VAT-related cost imbalances

CIOB’s full Sottish election manifesto can be found here

Scotland’s challenges in housing, climate change, and building safety are not the result of a lack of ambition. They are the result of systems that are not designed to deliver complex change at pace and scale.

This chapter appears on the CIOB news and blog site as "CIOB publishes Scottish Election Manifesto" published by the press office dated 3 February 2026.

[edit] RIAS Scottish Election Manifesto

Ahead of the elections to the Scottish Parliament on 7 May, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) has published its policy manifesto, offering an agenda for the built environment that reverses a cycle of decline and puts design at the heart of Scotland’s communities.

From homes to high streets, architecture and the built environment touches upon the lives of everyone in Scotland, every single day. As a charity representing and advocating for Scotland’s architects, the RIAS is calling for a rethink of policies affecting Scotland’s built environment, in order to tackle key issues including the housing emergency, growing fuel poverty, poor productivity and historic failures to prioritise building safety.

[edit] RIAS manifesto priorities

Renewal: Building Beyond Crisis sets out seven clear actions to renew Scotland’s buildings and places:

[edit] Stabilise capital investment

Committing to stable capital funding and ending a boom-and bust cycle that harms investment, delivery and businesses

[edit] Overhaul broken public procurement policy

Valuing Scottish SMEs, replacing the current race to the bottom with a transparent procurement system that focuses on long-term public value

[edit] Revitalise Scotland’s diminished planning system

Through well-resourced planning departments, greater co-operation with professional bodies and industry, and measures to support local action by communities

[edit] Ensure Building Regulations support climate policy goals

Prioritising the conservation and adaptation of existing buildings, tackling construction emissions and aligning regulations with net zero targets, circular economy principles and local supply chains

[edit] Remove barriers to community-led regeneration

Tackle failures to repair tenements, re-use gap sites and surplus buildings, simplify funding for regeneration and remove perverse disincentives such as VAT on repairs

[edit] Invest in construction skills to avoid delays and delivery failure

Create a funded pathway into built environment professions for all ages, and address skills gaps in retrofit, repair and building safety

[edit] Stop the endless policy churn and start re-purposing and rebuilding

Redirect Government thinking into innovation and investment, and reduce institutional duplication and barriers to delivery

Launching the RIAS manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections, RIAS President Karen Anderson said:

“Our manifesto provides the next Scottish Parliament with a clear set of measures that harness our built environment to promote health, protect the planet and sustain a thriving economy. It is a chance for MSPs to break free from a vicious cycle where short-term thinking in public investment has created crises affecting our health, our homes, our public services and our economy.

“The best projects in Scotland demonstrate clearly that architects have a key role to play in shaping Scotland’s renewal, and we want to work together with MSPs to deliver the buildings and places that communities deserve.”

The full manifesto, Renewal: Building Beyond Crisis, is available to read here.

This chapter appears on the RIAS news and blogsite as "Scottish Parliament elections: RIAS launches a manifesto for renewal" dated February 2026.

[edit] CIOB's Welsh Election Manifesto

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has published its manifesto ahead of the upcoming Welsh Election due to be held on 7 May 2026. The manifesto sets out five clear priority areas where CIOB believes action is needed from the next Welsh Government to better support the nation’s construction and built environment sector. These priorities relate to retrofitting, including its delivery and funding, procurement processes for public work and the construction skills gap.

The manifesto recommends practical and realistic steps future leaders can take to improve the construction sector to the benefit of Wales, which CIOB says is a “barometer” for the country’s economic landscape. David Kirby, who leads CIOB’s Policy and Public Affairs work in Wales, said:

“The importance of the built environment continues to be acknowledged by policymakers of all levels and members of the public across Wales. However, since the last Senedd election in 2021, the sector continues to face challenges. The growing skills gap and recruitment issues alongside continued high energy costs, material costs, labour costs and a tough economy more widely, means the sector in Wales struggles when compared to the rest of the UK, and many construction companies have ceased trading as a result. This is particularly negatively impacting SMEs, which make up the majority of the Welsh construction sector.

“Our five key priorities, if addressed by the next Government, will go a long way towards helping construction SMEs thrive, attract more people into the sector and upgrade homes across the nation to make them safer, warmer and more energy efficient.”

[edit] CIOB Welsh manifesto priorities

CIOB’s manifesto priorities for the next Welsh Government are:

[edit] Priority 1 - Retrofit and climate

Develop and implement a retrofit plan for the private housing market, including owner-occupiers

Develop an environmental remediation and mitigation plan to protect the wider built environment and the people that use it from extreme weather events.

CIOB says a long-term, joined-up retrofit plan would go a long way to providing assurance and confidence to the sector, ensuring employers can reap the benefits of upskilling their workforce in green skills and future-proofing their business for years to come.

The organisation adds recent weather extremes caused by climate change, including flash flooding and heatwaves across much of Wales, show there is also a need for any retrofit plan to include measures to reduce overheating in homes.

[edit] Priority 2 – Financing of retrofit measures

Create financial incentives for retrofit measures for all housing tenures and types such as a zero interest ‘Help to Fix’ loan.

CIOB warns a retrofit and implementation plan is extremely unlikely to succeed without a change to the funding structures in place for decarbonised heating. They say retrofit measures are considered too expensive for many households so additional ways to stimulate retrofit are needed such as an interest free loan for homeowners to improve their properties.

CIOB also recommends Welsh Government examines use of the taxation system to incentivise decarbonisation. Land Transaction Tax (LTT) and Council Tax are devolved to Welsh Government but have not been levied to incentivise homeowners. CIOB believes there is scope to reduce the tax burdens or, in the case of LTT, remove it altogether in certain situations, to free up money for people to decarbonise their properties.

[edit] Priority 3 - Procurement

Improve procurement processes for public work, including tender processes and ensuring they contain realistic time and cost aims.

Ensure processes are fair to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

In Wales, 99 per cent of construction companies are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 96 per cent of which employ fewer than 13 people. Recent CIOB research showed procurement is a huge barrier to SME construction companies for a range of reasons, including them not having the same dedicated procurement resource as larger contractors, a complex tender process, and unrealistic financial and time constraints for projects. The tender process itself is time-consuming. This is problematic for many smaller businesses, many of which do not have the time or resource to devote to applications.

CIOB encourages the next Welsh Government to introduce further devolution of tendering and procurement to local authorities, with the caveat that this needs to go alongside additional funding, resourcing, and training for these bodies. Local authorities are uniquely placed to identify and source local suppliers and contractors who can undertake work competently, without having to rely on larger organisations and overlook SMEs.

[edit] Priority 4 – Recruiting people into construction

Adopt a more holistic view of construction skills, shifting the focus from just getting young people into the sector, to encouraging people of all ages and backgrounds into the sector

Work with the construction sector to improve training and retention of construction professionals from a range of backgrounds, for example ex-offenders and asylum-seekers.

CIOB says the traditional pipeline of skills into the sector, primarily apprenticeships for 16–18-year-olds, no longer suffices. Competition is at an all-time high for entry-level roles, and many construction companies in Wales, particularly SMEs, cannot afford apprentices. CIOB wants to see the next Welsh Government shift its focus from solely getting young people into the industry, to focussing on all ages of people, many of whom have a wealth of transferable skills that could be put to good use in the construction sector, such as those recently made redundant from Tata Steel in Port Talbot.

[edit] Priority 5 – Construction skills survey

Conduct a skills survey across Wales to identify what skills are needed and where to provide a clear picture and inform future decisions around training provision and funding.

CIOB believes data from a nationwide skills survey will enable bodies like them and educational institutions to better design courses they know will be valuable, and the future Welsh Government can offer funding where appropriate with the confidence it will be put to good use.

For example, it’s known mid and north Wales face different skills pressures to the South-East, and employers in those areas consistently lose talent to larger scale projects elsewhere in Wales and across the border to areas like Merseyside. Such a survey may also be an opportunity to identify construction-adjacent fields that need greater focus, for example planners.

CIOB’s full manifesto can be found in both Welsh and English at CIOB Welsh Election 2026 Manifesto / Maniffesto Cymru CIOB 2026 | CIOB

This chapter appears on the CIOB news and blog site as "CIOB publishes Welsh Election Manifesto" published by the press office and dated 2 February, 2026.

[edit] ECA's Welsh Election Manifesto

With just over 100 days to the Senedd elections, this week saw the launch of ECA’s Welsh Manifesto, with an urgent message to all political parties. The number of electricians is in sharp decline. In 2015, Wales had around 13,400 electricians and apprentices. Today, that number has plummeted to just 7,600.

ECA (Electrical Contractors’ Association), is Wales’ leading electrical trade association. This year it’s celebrating 125 years of championing electrical progress, standards, and fair business practices. ECA’s manifesto sets out three intertwined issues facing the electrotechnical industry with solutions on how these might be overcome.

As Head of External Affairs at ECA, I’m in regular contact with employers, decision-makers, and educators across Wales, and these issues arise time and again.

[edit] CIOB Welsh manifesto priorities

[edit] Increasing the size and quality of apprenticeship provision

Wales stands on the cusp of an enormous economic opportunity, one powered quite literally by the electricians who keep our homes, businesses and infrastructure running safely and efficiently.

Yet Wales needs at least 700 new electrical apprentices every year just to maintain the workforce it already has. Last year only 435 apprentices began training.

Those statistics represent stalled careers, slowed business growth, and a real threat to Welsh ambitions to expand electric vehicle charging, strengthen its energy networks, retrofit homes, and accelerate digitisation.

This decline in workforce is reversible if decision-makers, colleges and education providers, and industry collaborate on finding solutions.

[edit] Measures tailored to support small businesses

ECA recognises this isn’t simply a workforce challenge, it’s an economic one.

The electrotechnical sector contributes £3.5 billion to the Welsh economy. Most businesses within the industry are SMEs, who are currently facing a perfect storm of increased operating costs, poor payment practices, and a rising administrative burden. Many small firms are finding it increasingly difficult to survive, which is cause for concern at a time when demand is growing.

In the current climate, many firms are understandably reluctant to assume increased risk. One of the main deterrents is the extended period required to realise a return on investment for taking on an apprentice, which has nearly doubled in recent years*. This increased risk has resulted in a decrease in apprenticeship recruitment during the last year.

To help reverse this trend, introducing a requirement in public contracts to take on apprentices could help stem the tide. Making apprentice recruitment a mandatory condition would provide a strong incentive for firms to invest in developing new talent. Additionally, offering targeted incentives to SMEs during an apprentice's first year would further alleviate the burden.

With 98.4% of electrotechnical firms classed as SMEs, the health of the sector is reliant on their survival. Strengthening the policing of SME-friendly procurement and prompt payment commitments would unlock growth and give businesses more certainty, and, ultimately, prevent liquidation.

[edit] Embedding safety and technical competence in legislation

The regulatory landscape for building new homes and modernising existing homes is fragmented, inconsistent and poorly enforced.

Modernising and electrifying the built environment is about more than solving technical issues, it is also about shifting cultural norms and finding new solutions to long standing issues. This includes embracing flexibility to include locally generated energy from consumers who both feed into and draw from the National Grid.

With rapid electrification it is vital safety isn’t compromised. Competent, properly trained electricians are key to ensuring installations are energy efficient, free from fire and electrocution hazards, and are maintained regularly to optimise output. As Wales grows its electrical capacity, progress means that standards should rise, rather than fall.

[edit] Working together

Across Wales, electrical contractors have already made good progress in raising concerns about skills and training. ECA has enjoyed cross-party support for our 2024 Skills Charter, which calls for more electrical apprentices and greater collaboration between industry, Welsh Government, Medr and other public bodies.

Building on this, ECA’s 2026 Manifesto was developed with Welsh businesses who have real world experience. It offers practical steps to solving existing problems and shows that industry is stepping up to help deliver good jobs, prevent unintended consequences of siloed decisions, and of course, grow the Welsh economy.

[edit] A Call to All Political Parties

With the Welsh General Election taking place on 7 May, doubling the number of representatives in the Senedd, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Every political party must recognise the pivotal role our industry plays, in shaping Wales’ economic resilience and modernity. We look forward to seeing practical, deliverable commitments in the manifestos.

Electrical contractors are ready to power Wales’ next chapter. But we can only do it with a workforce equipped to meet the scale of demand ahead. And a future government prepared to match that ambition.

If you would like to meet with an ECA Member business to discuss the manifesto in more detail, please contact us. The Electrotechnical Skills Partnership (TESP) research – Apprentice Return on Investment – 2025 Update

This article appears on the ECA news and blogsite as "ECA calls on political parties to tackle the decline in Welsh electrical apprenticeships" written by Jane Dawson, Head of external affairs ECA, dated 27 January, 2026.

[edit] The Builders' Manifesto for Wales 2026

Through this manifesto, we focus on four areas where policy change would have the greatest impact for builders, communities and the Welsh economy.

[edit] Access to housing: a growing crisis

Housing affordability is one of the most pressing challenges facing Wales. Wages have failed to keep pace with house prices, pushing more people into the private rented sector and driving up rents.

Local SME housebuilders, once responsible for 40% of new homes, now deliver just 9%. Reversing this decline is essential if Wales is to increase housing supply and create a more balanced and productive housing market.

What we are calling for

Ambitious national housing targets across all tenures that exceed calculated need and address the backlog.

Mandatory allocation of small sites in development plans to enable SME participation.
Raising the threshold for major developments to 50 units to reduce regulatory burdens on SMEs.
Access to finance for the pre-planning phase of housebuilding to support innovation and new entrants.

[edit] Retrofit and energy efficiency of homes

Wales has one of the oldest and least energy-efficient housing stocks in Europe. One-third of homes were built before 1919, and most of the homes that will exist in 2050 are already standing.

Decarbonising existing homes is essential to meeting Wales’ net zero target. Builders are ready to play their part, but current approaches risk excluding SMEs through excessive cost and bureaucracy.

What we are calling for

A long-term national retrofit strategy for private homes.
A proportionate, tiered quality standard for private-sector retrofit.
Better integration of heritage skills across retrofit programmes, rather than treating them as an add-on.

[edit] Skilled labour shortages: a broken pipeline

The construction industry faces a growing skills gap. Demand for labour far exceeds supply, while the workforce continues to shrink.

Wales needs an additional 2,200 construction workers each year, yet around 300 leave the workforce annually. One-third of workers are over 45, while only 20% are aged 16–24.

The core challenge is not attracting learners into training, but supporting them into sustained employment.

What we are calling for

A nationally co-ordinated construction skills strategy.
Rebalancing funding away from FE volumes and towards incentives for SMEs to employ apprentices.
Funding models that reward progression into employment, not just enrolment.
Expansion of shared apprenticeship schemes across Wales.

[edit] Building safety and standards

Rogue traders undermine trust in the industry, undercut professional builders and devalue skilled work. At present, anyone can call themselves a builder, with no minimum standards in place.

We support efforts to raise standards following the Grenfell tragedy. However, reforms must be implemented in a way that SMEs can realistically understand and comply with.

What we are calling for