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Achieving Construction 2025 will require working effectively as well as efficiently in the future

Britain is widely acknowledged for having extensive expertise in architecture, design, sustainable construction and engineering. Construction Enquirer (CE) has reported that private housing work in London and the South East provided the majority of industry growth between 2012 and 2015. Whilst housing is predicted to slow a little, the flurry of new offices to be constructed in London, Birmingham and Manchester is predicted to deliver 7% office sector growth in 2016 and 2017.

Construction 2025 recognises there are three key areas of change to help propel the industry further to meeting these ambitious targets. These key areas being centred around; cost savings to be made, efficient delivery and reduction on emissions and headline objectives to achieve 33% reduction in initial construction and whole life cost, 50% reduction in time between concept to completion and 50% reduction in emissions in the built environment. The importance of these key areas should not only be seen in the delivery of the construction phase but should be planned from the very beginning, ensuring that the project is managed through to meet the objectives and create the best customer experience in an efficient and cost saving manner.   

To meet the targets set out in Construction 2025 the development of more efficient methods of constructing will need to be more widely adopted in order to work towards these ambitious savings. Methods such as off-site construction can be advantageous on housing and education projects for example, and could be adopted more often. Off-site construction gives you the ability to standardise a build; keeping a consistent quality, reducing risk and minimising disruption to the site. This also allows you to enhance the specification of your project to lower the life occupancy cost and the waste and emissions. As the construction takes place off site, this reduces the overall build time, amount of time needed on site and lowers overall construction costs as time spent on site is minimal.

However the scale and breadth of the government agenda means that the industry may well need to look beyond more efficient construction methods as what may well be required extends to more effective working practices from everyone involved. Bringing an end to the confrontation client – provider relationship where one aims to benefit at the expense of the other to a better connected relationship with common outcomes and shared benefits for all, i.e. end users and the wider environment as well as the immediate client – provider parties directly involved.

To support the government ambition in achieving these ambitions, it is important to partner with companies who have the technical knowledge and imagination to help take advantage of the emerging technologies and more efficient construction methods, but also have a culture of shared goals and transparent working to establish a more constructive working relationship.  

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