THE region is facing a race against time to head off a major shortage of construction workers.

For the past decade, thousands of North-East labourers have shored up the booming construction sector in London and the South-East.

This has eased since the widening of the European Union last May, as men from former Eastern Bloc countries, such as Poland, have flooded the capital, where they can earn five times their domestic wage.

But these migrant labourers will return home to well paid jobs in 2007, when the EU starts pumping billions into regeneration projects in their home states.

Experts fear this will lead to a sudden drain in the North-East, as skilled workers are once again lured to London to fill the gap.

Simon Murray, regional chairman of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said: "The East European labour currently in London and the South-East may return home, creating a new skills void.

"They will turn to the North-East, and we will find more skilled workers going to work on major projects in the south, such as Heathrow Terminal Five."

The Northern Echo reported in February how a lack of builders was threatening investment of £3bn in North-East public sector housing.

"For the last two years, after a skills shortage for a decade or more, we have been able to recruit the numbers we needed in the region," said Mr Murray.

"That won't happen from 2007, unless we start planning ahead now."

The RICS is working on a regional strategy to plug the gap, along with the likes of One NorthEast, the Learning and Skills Council and Business Link.

A study by the RICS published yesterday found that, ignoring the 2007 situation, the region still needs to recruit and train at least 15,000 people over the next five years to meet demand and replace natural wastage.

But more than a fifth of those trained in the North-East will end up working in the South.

Nationally, the industry has seen nine years of continuous growth. But the shortage of skilled workers is at its lowest for two years, thanks to the 133,000 Eastern Europeans working on UK sites.

Migrant workers are also making their way to the North-East. The RICS recently discovered a sizeable group of Polish and Latvian labourers were building apartments on Newcastle Quayside.

Its report also found further growth in the regional sector is expected, mainly driven by commercial property.