The Lechley Brief
If this was useful, the Brief is where I write about it first. My weekly email on leadership, talent and what is moving in UK construction and infrastructure, in your inbox every Monday morning.
07 Jul 2026
The housing numbers are turning into hiring
A contract worth more than 112 million for affordable housing, signed this month, tells you more about the next hiring cycle than any jobs report.
When a tier-one signs a nine-figure residential package, the recruitment follows on a predictable lag. First the bid team, then the commercial leads, then the programme and operations directors who have to deliver it.
The affordable and build-to-rent end of housing has been quietly busy while the for-sale market stayed cautious. Development arms of the large housing associations are placing serious work with main contractors, and that work needs senior people who can run residential at volume.
This is a different skill set from commercial offices or infrastructure. Tight margins, repeatable units, a client who cares as much about long-term stewardship as handover. The leaders who thrive here are not always the obvious names from the trophy projects.
If you run a contractor moving into this space, start the leadership conversations now, not when the programme starts. The best residential operators are being approached already. By the time the award is public, the shortlist has usually moved.
Contracts are a lagging indicator of optimism and a leading indicator of hiring. Read them that way.
Lechley Associates runs retained executive search for UK construction leadership. Read how a retained construction executive search runs.
Next step
If you have a senior appointment of your own to make, this is how I run a retained search.
How retained search worksHow retained search works
Similar blogs
Oct 2026
The year we didn't hire anyone
Nobody remembers cutting the trainees in 2009. Ten years on, it is who is missing from every senior shortlist. The long read on downturns and the people we never hired.
Oct 2026
Every project starts with setting out
Why the first ten years and the last ten need different front doors to the same industry.
Sept 2026
Waiting until you feel ready costs you a year
The QSs who wait to feel fully ready before applying move a year later than the ones who don't, and it shows over a career.
Sept 2026
Who tells your chief executive they are wrong?
Most growing contractors have a chair or a non-executive. Far fewer have anyone whose actual job is to challenge them.
