Robbie's Story

Robbie, 41, from Gateshead Central and Whickham wanted to retrain in construction as the North East faces an ongoing housing crisis. Training providers had unfilled places while local housing targets remained unmet, but HM Treasury's approach to infrastructure spending blocked the connection. Instead of treating construction training as the mechanism to put workers like Robbie into jobs building desperately needed homes, central government treated it as a deficit risk. The workers were available, training capacity existed, and homes had planning permission. What was missing was political will from Westminster to fund the posts that would have put skilled tradespeople to work addressing the housing shortage that affects families across the constituency. This episode explores how monetary mythology blocks real solutions to real problems. Blocked Britain investigates government failures, not personal ones.