Barriers and concerns to boosting construction in the UK

 

  

As a seasonal slowdown in UK construction activity is announced - falling to a 7 month low in November - Tarmac’s recently published results in their Infrastructure Outlook report¹  reveals some interesting concerns about our approach to UK infrastructure development. Seasonal weather is far from the main barrier to more much needed construction work, be it homes, transport or social infrastructure development.

The majority of builders (66%) agree that “not enough is being done to meet the UK’s infrastructure requirements”. The industry thinks a variety of actions would help meet our requirements, in particular cutting red tape (83%), increasing government investment (73%), giving more certainty about government spending (71%) and unlocking private investment (70%).

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November (post-research) announced that capital spending is to rise to £61bn over the course of the next parliament (schemes include the electrification of the TransPennine, Midland and Great Western lines, plus almost £5bn for road maintenance). This may go some way to meeting concerns about the level and certainty of planned government investment.

But even if investment was raised to the level that the industry think is required, there are other limitations. Skills shortages is another major concern with the majority (72%) in the construction sector disagreeing that “the UK has enough workers with the right skills and training to deliver the infrastructure the UK requires” in the short term (up to the end of 2016).

The construction industry also favours more local decision making – 72% agreeing that “local government should be able to decide about infrastructure projects in its own region.” If there was more devolution of these sorts of decisions, the majority (61%) are at least fairly confident that devolution of local government will help in the delivery of local infrastructure projects. The general public would also like to see more of a role for local government as discussed in a recent Ipsos blog, although there may be trust issues and concerns about local negative impact of such projects.

But with climate change and sustainability as increasing global concerns, how are these issues being handled in UK construction projects (both big and small)? Whilst there is some use of recycled materials for new projects, only a third (33%) of builders think that their industry is doing enough to recover and recycle construction materials. Nearly half think we could do more – 32% consider we are doing some but not enough and 16% that we are clearly not doing enough.

Sustainable construction practices (e.g. practices that lower the carbon footprint, reduce the environmental impact of a project, and help achieve social and economic benefits) can add to costs and if clients are not willing to pay then there is another major barrier to overcome. Only 1 in 6 (17%) in the sector think their customers would agree that sustainable construction practices are important and customers are willing to pay a premium to implement them. A similar proportion (17%) think that some customers will consider this, i.e. it depends on the client. But over half (60%) think that sustainable construction practices are not important enough for customers to pay a premium to implement them.

¹Technical note

• Ipsos interviewed 300 senior decision makers in construction companies and their clients by telephone between 8th July and 12th August 2015.
• The sample was drawn from the Dun & Bradstreet business database. Quotas were set to obtain 100 interviews from decision makers in civil engineering companies, organisations and clients, plus 200 in construction companies (for commercial and domestic buildings).
• The interviews covered all UK regions and all organisations had at least 10 employees (up to 1000+). The data is not weighted by company size or sector.