2022 – ‘The Year Everything Changed In Construction’

Perhaps in years to come, somebody reviewing the history of the UK construction industry will look back at 2022 and think: ‘That was the year everything changed’. 

‘2022 was the year that, after years of talking about quality and productivity improvements, the industry started delivering.’

‘It was the year that we started building for net zero carbon across the entire building lifecycle.’

‘It was the year that we stopped worrying about cost and timing overruns with every new project.’

‘It was the year that MMC finally took off.’

Why 2022 Could Be Pivotal

It seems like we’ve been talking about the potentially transformational impact of MMC forever. But adoption has remained marginal. Why would 2022 be any different?

There are several reasons why MMC will quickly become the default option for most construction projects:

• Shortage of skilled labour is an unresolved problem. If anything Brexit made things worse.
• There is a lot of construction output to deliver with limited budgets – productivity and rigid cost control will be crucial.
• Net zero and whole life carbon accounting will focus more attention on embodied and end of life carbon, as well as carbon emissions from building maintenance and repairs.

Perhaps most significantly there is now the critical mass in the industry to deliver MMC at scale. And when additional capacity is needed it’s easier to bring additional manufacturing space into service than it would be to go searching for thousands of skilled construction workers who just aren’t there.

What’s Missing?

The final part of the jigsaw is procurement. This is what could really make 2022 different. Even without mandating MMC, procurement teams could tip the scales by prioritising whole life carbon accounting, quality assurance, delivery times and building performance over upfront cost.

It feels like the time is right and several factors are coming together to make 2022 the year that finally changes the face of UK construction.

For more information contact Richard King ([email protected])