While many of the themes are consistent with the quango’s original remit, set out in 2013, there are significant additions and omissions.
Some of the additions relate to the post-Grenfell agenda of building safety (where safety relates to the inhabitants of buildings rather than the people building them) and the promotion of ‘the golden thread’ of digital information that must now accompany complex building projects.
Publication of the new CLC strategy follows the appointment of Mace chief executive Mark Reynolds in June to succeed Tideway’s Andy Mitchell as industry-side co-chair. Co-chair on the government side is Lord Callanan, a former brewery engineer and local councillor put in the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2014. He is now junior minister in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy with the construction brief. It is not thought that he had much of a hand in producing this new strategy, however.
As recently as five years ago the priorities of the Construction Leadership Council included cutting building costs by 33% and halving the balance of trade deficit by 2025. But times have changed since then. There appear to be no measurable targets set down anymore, perhaps to avoid being categorised as failing. Instead there is a vision.
The four strategic priorities over the next three years, taking the council through to 2025 are:
- Building Safety – champion and support delivery of safe & high quality buildings
- Net Zero & Biodiversity – accelerate the sector’s transition to net zero and mitigate the impacts of climate change
- People & Skills – energise our people, attract talent and enhance their skills for the future
- Next Generation Delivery – boost productivity through digital adoption and industrialisation.
Compare this with the original goals for 2025, set down by government in 2013 when it first convened the Construction Leadership Council of hand-picked company executives.
The original Construction 2025 document also had four themes that remain broadly comparable to today’s update:
- People – an industry that is known for its talented and diverse workforce
- Smart – an industry that is efficient and technologically advanced
- Sustainable – an industry that leads the world in low-carbon and green construction exports
- Growth – an industry that drives growth across the entire economy.
However, Construction 2025 included four very specific targets, namely:
- 33% reduction in both the initial cost of construction and the whole life cost of built assets
- 50% faster delivery, from inception to completion
- 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment
- 50% reduction in the trade gap between exports and imports of construction products and materials.
Material release today make no refences to these targets. If today’s Construction Leadership Council does still have any specific targets, it has yet to share them publicly. It has, however, supplied a little flesh to the bones of its priorities, as follows:
Building Safety
Scope: Safe and high quality buildings for those who occupy them
Mission:
- Assist to remove regulatory uncertainty
- Resolve product certification
- Support delivery of the Golden Thread (process & digital)
- Develop partnerships and campaigns which unlock sustainable PI Insurance
Net Zero & Biodiversity
Scope: Accelerating the sector’s transition to Net Zero and mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Mission:
- Draw on the expertise of the Green Construction Board to drive action around the Construct Zero 9 priorities including:
- ∙ Construction activity: recycle & reduce waste and minimise whole life carbon impact of projects (targeting steel and cement)
- ∙ Buildings: minimise operational carbon through retrofit & higher energy efficiency standards for new buildings
- ∙ Transport: accelerating the roll out of zero emission plant and vehicles
- Enhance resource efficiency (water)
- Increase biodiversity and environmental net gain.
People & Skills
Scope: Energise our people, attract talent and enhance their skills for the future.
Mission:
- Our culture: inclusive and embracing diversity
- Simplify routes into the industry
- Support apprentices and entrants
- Develop industry competence and behaviours
- Enable skills to transform and modernise
- Support for small employers within construction around health, safety & wellbeing.
Next Generation Delivery
Scope: Boost productivity through digital adoption and industrialisation.
Mission:
- Champion the implementation of the construction playbook(s) principles to deliver:
- ∙ better value to society and resilient business models throughout the industry.
- ∙ fairer practices including retentions, payment performance and contractual clauses
- Lead deployment of digital and data standards & simplify the current digital construction landscape so it works for all (including SMEs)
- Deliver ways to better digitally connect the construction supply chain
- Promote platform & MMC deployment.
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