AN INFLUX of labour from Eastern Europe is changing the face of the construction industry and bridging the skills gap in the sector, according to a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report.

Only 38 per cent of chartered surveyors are reporting difficulties in recruiting trades people, compared to a high of 45 per cent in the third quarter of 2003.

One reason for this is the arrival of more migrant labour from countries like Poland and the Czech Republic, which has been made easier since EU enlargement last May.

With the decline of domestic vocational training and apprenticeships, this trend looks set to continue.

Confidence remains strong for both employment and output in the South East, although confidence in profit margins has slipped back.

Trevor Hines, RICS South East director, said: "Now it is much easier for migrant EU workers to make their way across borders for jobs. The process was more involved before enlargement but now workers can leave for the UK on a whim.

"If average British incomes are around five times or more that of their home country and unemployment in Poland, for example, is over 18 per cent, the maths is not hard to do.

"At the labour level the system is working well but this liberal market ideology has yet to penetrate professional skills.

"There are still many barriers for UK construction and property professionals wishing to practise outside the UK and RICS is working hard to ensure this becomes more of a two-way street."

South East construction industry workloads rose moderately again in the first three months of 2005, at a similar rate to the previous nine months. The main growth in activity for the region came in the private commercial sub-sector.

Housing activity continued to show ongoing increases, but other sectors, such as public works and infrastructure, showed little change.