Running alongside the Scottish Construction Summit, the co-located format also opens up valuable crossover with the construction side of the industry, giving delegates access to both programmes under one roof.

Doug Forbes is a director of Whole Life Consultants Ltd and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Dundee. A Chartered Civil Engineer, he holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and specialises in construction labour forecasting and infrastructure strategy, with a particular focus on how a robust evidence base can be created to improve delivery outcomes.

With over 20 years’ experience across engineering, research and consultancy, Doug works at the intersection of construction pipelines, labour demand and skills planning. He played a leading role in the development of the CITB Labour Forecasting Tool and has contributed to national and regional forecasting through the Construction Skills Network (CSN) with CITB and Experian. Doug has led and supported labour and skills analysis for major programmes and clients including High Speed 2, Heathrow, Network Rail, NISTA, Tideway, and the Nuclear New Build programme.

His work spans housing, infrastructure and the energy transition, focusing on how programmes translate into occupational demand, productivity and training requirements. Doug is also actively involved in shaping industry and policy thinking. He served as ceputy chair of the Analytical Consortium for the Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy (TIES) Living Lab (Innovate UK and the Department for Transport), is an accredited researcher with the Office for National Statistics and contributes to national discussions through the Construction Leadership Forum’s Pipeline Working Group and the Department for Business and Trade’s Consultative Committee on Construction Industry Statistics.

More recently, his work has centred on the workforce implications of net zero and large-scale retrofit, including place-based analysis at regional and local authority level. This includes supporting public bodies and industry to understand not just the scale of demand, but when and where it will arise, and what that means for delivery. Doug brings an evidence-based perspective to a simple but critical question facing the sector: not just what do we plan to build but do we have the right workforce to deliver it?

Register Now

With a full programme taking shape and a free-to-attend format, places are expected to fill quickly. Delegates are encouraged to register early to secure their spot.

Register now — free to attend.

To sponsor or exhibit, contact Commercial Director, Raymond Carr: Raymond@scottishnews.com or 07956242860