Increasing Productivity 'Should Be Priority' For British Construction In 2018

Increasing Productivity ‘Should Be Priority’ For British Construction In 2018

Increasing the productivity of the British construction industry should be made a priority in 2018.

This is according to director of SiteSmart at BRE and member of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Simon Cross, who said productivity is more important than ever before as the industry squares up to Brexit, Specification Online reports.

The OECD predicts the UK’s GDP will grow by just one per cent this year, with construction which accounts for 6.7 per cent of the British economy, employing nearly three million people, bearing a huge responsibility for the health of the nation.

Construction faces its own challenges, with Brexit potentially causing havoc for construction recruitment, while the industry has historically struggled with a lack of investment in skills, technology and new systems.

Cross has outlined several measures he believes will keep construction productivity going in the interim period between now and when stability post-Brexit has resumed, namely that new business models need to be implemented to impose a change in culture, supply chain models and behaviour.

“I believe the construction industry has the potential to be 20-40 per cent more efficient which would significantly increase operating margins (contractors’ are less than one per cent), provide R&D capital, and develop sector resilience … How that’s going to happen is through a combination of policy levers and market forces,” he was quoted by the news source as saying.

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