Mateo's Story

Meet Mateo, 27, from Sheffield Central in Yorkshire and The Humber, who wanted to train as a construction worker but found himself caught in a web of misplaced priorities. Construction training providers across the region had unfilled places while local housing targets remained unmet. The workers were available, the training capacity existed, but HM Treasury and the Department for Levelling Up treat infrastructure spending as a deficit risk rather than the mechanism that puts skilled tradespeople to work building desperately needed homes. Mateo's story reveals how central government choices about funding create artificial scarcity in one of Britain's most essential sectors. Disclosure: This episode examines how monetary policy affects individual lives.