Welcome to 2025! I hope everyone is well-rested and ready for the new year to come. We don’t know yet exactly what it will bring, but some challenges are already clear and indeed have been clear for quite some time.
For example, at the end of last year, we learnt two things about housing. First, that the Government has the ambition to see 1.5 million new homes delivered during the current Parliament, and second, that UK housebuilders do not think there are enough skilled people actually to build them.
This presents a major opportunity for capacity-building, but it needs to be the right kind of capacity. Certainly, we will always need some specialists in the wet trades, because the vast majority of our housing stock is made of bricks and blocks and most of it will still exist a hundred years from now. However, one of the best opportunities is in off-site manufacture, whether as components or modules.
The advantages of this are obvious. Compared with a building site, a factory can be safer, cleaner, can produce less waste, be net-zero in operation and more efficient. It is proof against bad weather and allows the same type of quality control which is achieved in the automotive and electronic industries – and quality control is still a challenge in traditional housebuilding. Done properly, it can remove the need for wet trades from site altogether by delivering weatherproof, fully wired, fully plumbed and even pre-decorated modules to site.
The UK already has a diverse ecosystem of modular house manufacturers but many of them are small business struggling to scale. The opportunity is for government and industry to work together in 2025 and beyond to grow this into a world-class industry that can play a major role in delivering those million and a half homes.
Finally, Local Government is a major stakeholder in approving, facilitating and sometimes providing social housing, which is one of the areas where supply is poorest. There is a chance for them, at all levels up to the Combined Authorities, to look for new ways of working in partnership with industry to build supply chains through innovative procurement, to complete the virtuous circle of local employment producing local housing to contribute to the national need.
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Well, if the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) – with the responsibility for ensuring the safety of buildings in England – has its way then yes, we will be embarking on a transformation of our culture.
The new powers of the BSR under the new building safety regime continue to be widely discussed. What perhaps has not been so widely examined are the statutory duties on the BSR itself to facilitate improvement in the competence of the industry and change our culture.
This month Martyn Jones examines how the BSR sees their role in changing our culture and how we as an industry should respond.
To start, what is meant by culture? It is a nebulous, imprecise concept, but is commonly defined as the way of life shared by a group of people, including their values, beliefs, customs, and ways of responding to life.
Within an organisation it’s seen as the set of values, ethics, beliefs that define its day-to-day operations and atmosphere, with “the way we do things around here” often being used to describe what it means.
Defining the culture of a construction project is even more complex given the diversity of our projects, the number of organisations making up a project team, and their often-different aims, objectives, culture, backgrounds, and ways of working.
Despite the challenges involved, the BSR aim to bring consistency, structure, and a common language and an understanding to what is meant by culture, maintaining it is “how we think, feel, and behave”, and that it is influenced by our immediate environment.
But there are wider social influences too – the economy, local and national government, and increasingly of course social media with its benefits, such as helping to raise awareness of social, environmental, political, and ethical issues. But also, its downsides such as negatively impacting on relationships, and creating a sense of detachment and isolation by reducing face-to-face interactions.
What about the BSR’s role in this? Given their roots in the HSE, they see themselves very much as setting the vision; monitoring and reviewing; supporting and facilitating; and working in partnership with the industry.
They aim to help us clarify and articulate at a high-level the factors that drive a positive building safety and compliance culture, and what this might ‘look like’. They want us to consider where we are now, and provoke discussion and reflection about what we can do to improve our culture. An obvious role here for Constructing Excellence.
They have identified the steps, as they see them, in bringing about this cultural shift, starting with awareness of the need for change, setting a vision, and showing how the core principles can be demonstrated in everyday practice.
In this they highlight the need for accountability and leadership and sharing best practice across teams, duty holders, supply chains, professions, trade bodies and with the BSR.
Then there’s ensuring appropriate practices across projects, supply chains and sectors along with competence and conduct – ensuring individuals and organisations have the skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours needed.
They are looking to people across the built environment to take the lead and be accountable in driving industry improvements by raising awareness and understanding of the culture change agenda, self-assessing cultural maturity, and monitoring competence.
Given the high level of interdependence between construction organisations, they are calling for inter-organisational collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, expertise, and data. Mutually identifying and championing success, challenging and addressing poor behaviour and practices, and striving for sustained and continuous improvement.
We’ve been here before and, let’s be honest, found cultural change on this scale to be tough given our continuing infatuation with the traditional operating system and often transactional relationships.
The last time we saw such a call for cultural transformation was in the 1990s in response to the Latham and Egan reports. And yes, these did provoke some change in our culture and behaviours but the degree of change judged to be necessary at that time has not fully materialised.
What’s different now? Well, this time round the need for transformational change has been highlighted by our past failures now all too apparent following the Grenfell Tower fire and the publication of the Hackitt Review, the Public Enquiry, and the need for a new Legal Framework.
Clearly, change is needed and is already underway with construction and property professionals having to grapple with new very specific legal duties and following more meticulous processes in the new safety regime.
But will the current call for cultural change, driven by the BSR and the new statutory duties being placed on clients, principal designers, principal contractors, and principal accountable persons be more successful than our previous attempts at such transformation? Perhaps making it work this time should be our collective New Year’s resolution for 2025.
We are very excited to congratulate two of our CE West Midlands Awards 2024 winning projects for their wins at the Constructing Excellence National Awards 2024!
Huge Congratulations to Pulse Consult, Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Stratford Town Trust, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) (now Coventry City Council) for Stratford Riverside which won the Delivering Value Award and also to VINCI Building UK, Birmingham Airport, D5 Architects LLP, Cundall or their Next Generation Security Project, Birmingham Airport which won the Integration and Collaborative Working Award.
Three Winning Facts about the Stratford Riverside project:
1. Prioritising Stakeholders- Harnessing the opinions and support of a wide range of stakeholders and project partners was essential. Volunteers, business support, community groups, statutory bodies all came to the table, offered direct help to make it possible. Through the District Council’s central role and LEP support, something special was achieved.
2. Leveraging value- Unlike commercially driven projects, this had to drive value from every pound spent for the improvement of biodiversity, residents and visitors. This engendered genuine support and a will to achieve value.
3. Turning around 30 years of neglect- The majority of this site had unfortunately been neglected and left unmanaged for some 30 years. This project turned this around and set in motion a legacy fund created by biodiversity offset credits to fund the next 3 decades of planned maintenance.
Three Winning Facts about Next Generation Security Project – Birmingham Airport:
1. Collaborative processes fostered a one-team approach that championed client needs.
2. Coordination across disciplines bolstered successful delivery of this highly complex project, to programme and in a live operational environment.
3.Ongoing communication enabled delivery with zero impact to airport operations or customer experience.
Tributes continue to be paid to Lord John Prescott, a major figure in Labour politics and the former deputy prime minister, following his death at the age of 86.
Known for his blunt, no-nonsense style, and powerful left hook, Lord Prescott was Sir Tony Blair’s loyal deputy for 10 years after Labour’s 1997 general election landslide. His passing has prompted Martyn Jones to reflect on his impact on construction.
When Labour won power in 1997, he became deputy prime minister, as well as leading a vast department with responsibilities spanning the environment, transport, and the regions.
It was in these roles that he helped negotiate the landmark Kyoto climate change treaty – the Kyoto Protocol – adopted in 1997 and entered into force in 2005. It required 41 countries and the European Union to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5.2% below 1990 levels and setting us on the path to combating climate change.
But our focus here is on his role as the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) when he set up a Construction Task Force, chaired by Sir John Egan, to report on the scope for improving the quality and efficiency of UK construction. Their report published in 1998 significantly changed the lexicon and ways of working in much of the industry.
In formulating their proposals for change the Task Force studied the experiences gained at the cutting edge of construction and in other industries that had changed themselves in response to the emerging ICT techno-economic wave in the late 1980s early 90s. In doing so, this was, at the time arguably construction’s most explicit response to the opportunities presented by the new technologies and ways of working associated with the new wave.
They argued that continuous and sustained improvement was achievable if we focussed all our efforts on delivering the value that our customers need, and if we were prepared to challenge the waste and poor quality arising from our existing structures and working practices.
Their challenging targets, based on their own experience and evidence obtained from projects in the UK and overseas, included annual reductions of 10% in construction cost and time, and that defects in projects should be reduced by 20% per year.
Recommendations included radical changes to the processes through which projects were being delivered. They called for an integrated project process to add value around the key elements of focus on the customer, product development and implementation, partnering the supply chain, and production of components.
Sustained improvement should then be delivered through use of techniques for eliminating waste in our supply chains and increasing value for the customer, but they warned that if we were to achieve our full potential, substantial changes in our culture and structure were needed.
Clearly there have been significant moves by government and private clients to procure in ways that encourage collaborative working and foster partnering. And, it is generally considered that much of construction has become more efficient and safer for construction workers following the publication of the Egan report.
The report reenergised interest in offsite manufacturing, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA), an engineering methodology aimed at optimising the efficiency of manufacturing and assembly processes.
The change agenda was driven by several organisations including the Reading Construction Forum, Design Build Foundation, Construction Best Practice Programme, Movement for Innovation (M4I), Rethinking Construction, Be, Constructing Excellence, Construction Clients’ Group, all of which united under the Constructing Excellence umbrella.
Despite these changes and efforts, it is fair to say that the values and principles set out in the report have not been entirely embraced by the industry. Ten years after publication of the report, Sir John stated: ‘…we have to say we’ve got pretty patchy results. And certainly, nowhere near the improvement we could have achieved, or that I expected to achieve…. I guess if I were giving marks out of 10 after 10 years, I’d probably only give the industry about four out of 10’
Some quarter of a century later, how are we now doing in relation to Egan’s values, targets, and strategies for improvement? And how relevant are these in meeting today’s challenges and opportunities? One of Lord Prescott’s mantras might be helpful here: “Traditional values in a modern setting.”
Applying this mantra means taking Egan’s values and principles (maybe with some tweaking) and applying them with renewed vigour but in the context or setting of the new wave, with its shift away from fossil fuels to a green economy; new technologies including renewable energy production and storage; the deployment of AI; along with new structures and cultures and ways of conducting business such as business ecosystems. And in doing so also helping to meet the government’s aspirations to build 1.5 million homes and replace our ageing and increasingly decrepit infrastructure.
A revitalised UK economy is laying the foundations for a construction boom over the next two years—because nothing says “we’re building back better” like a few more cranes dotting the skyline. After a brief flirtation with recession in late 2023, the economy is back in growth mode in 2024, and momentum is expected to build (pun intended) through 2025 and 2026. It’s a blueprint for progress that’s got the industry dusting off its hard hats and steel-capped boots.
Economic growth is forecast at a modest 1% for 2024—think of it as the economy clearing the rubble of last year’s setbacks. This rebound is driven by higher government spending and a recovery in consumer activity. The early July election helped level the political landscape, boosting investor confidence and hammering home the message that stability is back.
Consumers, cautiously optimistic, are spending again, supported by a small rise in real household incomes. While wage growth has slowed (from a hefty 7.3% in 2023 to about 4% this year), inflation has fallen faster than a wobbly scaffold, giving households more financial stability. Lower inflation has also paved the way for interest rates to ease, helping the housing market lay its first bricks of recovery and giving businesses the confidence to dream big again.
Meanwhile, the Chancellor’s Budget rolled out a mix of tax measures—most of them aimed at wealthier households. Adjustments to inheritance tax, capital gains tax, non-dom rules, and VAT on school fees might be rattling the chandeliers in certain circles, but they’re expected to leave overall consumer spending and confidence largely intact. Plus, public sector pay rises and increased government spending are cementing near-term economic growth.
Even more exciting is the Chancellor’s decision to loosen fiscal rules, giving the green light to increased government borrowing for infrastructure and construction projects. It’s like handing the industry a shiny new toolbox and saying, “Go build us a brighter future.” This policy shift is expected to underpin growth across the built environment—just the kind of reinforcement the economy needs.
From 2025 onwards, household incomes are projected to grow even more strongly, providing a solid foundation for consumer-facing construction sectors like private housing, retail, and leisure. Easing borrowing costs, brighter economic conditions, and newfound political stability are also likely to nail down investor confidence in industrial and commercial property markets. The outlook? Rock-solid.
Publicly funded projects, temporarily delayed by the General Election and subsequent programme reviews, are finally back on the drafting table. The 2025/26 Budget commitments have cleared up the confusion, enabling government departments to press ahead with long-planned projects. The upcoming Spring Spending Review will lay out the longer-term funding framework, setting the stage for a public sector construction boom in the latter half of the forecast period.
In short, the UK economy is building momentum, and the construction industry is poised to raise the roof. With steady growth prospects, fiscal reforms, and greater stability, the next few years look set to be a cornerstone for progress. Now, who’s ready to break ground?
Stuart Smith BEng (Hons)
Senior Business Development Manager- Morgan Sindall
We were so taken by Trevor’s presentation at our 2024 Annual Construction Summit that we have decided to adopt Mindflow as our chosen charity for 2025. The link between football and construction is very close and we feel the charity will be able to reach thousands of people with this very important message. We hope CE Midlands members will be generous throughout next year.
Mindflow, a charity dedicated to supporting the mental health crisis in the construction industry is delighted to be named as Constructing Excellence Midland’s charity partner for 2025.
Recently launched as the charity arm of Causeway Technologies, Mindflow – spearheaded by former England International, Trevor Steven is championing mental health in construction by joining the dots between mental health, construction and football.
Research shows that male construction site workers are three times more likely to die from suicide than the average male in the UK. In fact, suicide kills 20 times more construction workers than accidents in the workplace. With these alarming statistics, Trevor Steven decided to personally visit construction sites across the UK to speak directly to the workforce to understand first-hand what the main factors were that are contributing to this crisis.
Construction, being known for its predominantly male and macho image, Trevor was able to cut through and engage with this audience, with his time in football being a similar environment to work within. This valuable insight led to the findings being published and Mindflow being created to support the industry in instigating positive change.
Trevor Steven, Mindflow CEO comments: “CE Midlands are a great fit for Mindflow, sharing our commitment to the construction industry and I’ve really enjoyed being attending some great events this year and meeting people across their network. We are so pleased to be named charity partner for 2025 – the inaugural year for Mindflow as we align with CE Midlands’ vision and it gives us a great platform to support the industry in partnership with you. I am looking forward to working more closely with the team and forging a strong collaboration through events and engaging initiatives to champion positive mental health within the industry and work together to make mental health as fundamental as physical health in construction.”
A Meet the Buyer event which attracted more than 100 delegates wanting to learn more about winning work on Shropshire’s flagship construction projects has been hailed a resounding success.
The Shropshire Constructing Excellence event showcased projects in the pipeline for Shropshire, including the regeneration of Shrewsbury’s Riverside and the Station Quarter development in Telford, and the opportunities available for sub-contractors to get involved.
It also included support for subcontractors and supply-chain businesses on the process for procurement and offered key networking opportunities for the sector.
Mark Barrow, chair of Constructing Excellence Midlands Shropshire Club (SCE), said the event at Telford College had given the sector a huge boost.
“This event was a resounding success, and it was clear from the sheer volume of attendees that local businesses have a real interest in wanting to help deliver on the multi-billion-pound pipeline of projects planned for Shropshire. They clearly want to play their role in helping to shape the future landscape of the region.
“Bringing together sub-contractors and supply chain businesses with leading contractors and public sector procurement teams in this way is a fantastic way to ensure we continue to strengthen the sector, the local economy and forge new relationships which bring jobs and training opportunities for local people.
“The expo-style Meet the Buyer event gave attendees the chance to talk to contractors and gain a better understanding of timescales for projects, scale of opportunity and the
process for bidding for work and it is clear from early feedback from the sector found this hugely beneficial.” Shropshire Council, Telford & Wrekin Council, Lovell, McPhillips, Pave Aways, SWG Group, IHP, JN Bentley and Shropshire Homes were among the list of contractors in attendance.
As well as meeting buyers, those attending also learned from Lovell Partnerships how they can increase their chances of winning work by improving the social value they contribute to construction schemes.
Delegates also received an update on the Building Safety Act from Shropshire-based Safety For.
Telford is the fastest-growing town in the West Midlands, and the Station Quarter is just one of the major infrastructure projects planned for the next decade. Made up of commercial, residential and education space – including a new sixth form for Telford College.
Shropshire Council has a range of projects in the pipeline or already being delivered – these include the transformation of the Riverside area of Shrewsbury, a new roundabout and railway bridge on the A49 at Craven Arms, and town centre improvements and the Oswestry Innovation Park.
For more information on the Constructing Excellence Midlands – Shropshire Club and to keep up to date with future events visit https://www.cemidlands.org/clubs/shropshire
The last time we had a new Labour government back in 1997 they set up an industry task group, led by Sir John Egan, charged with identifying ways to improve the quality and efficiency of the UK construction industry, and deliver “best value” in infrastructure projects.
Their report influenced our thinking for a generation, encouraging us to adopt best practices from other industries, particularly automotive. It advocated radical change, to think beyond the boundaries of our projects to unlock the potential in our supply chains, and to embrace the new discipline of supply chain management.
The change of government set Martyn Jones thinking about the transformation we need today if we are to meet their aspirations for productivity-raising infrastructure projects – such as replacing dilapidated schools and hospitals – initiating new green energy projects, and building more council housing.
Alongside this, the government is also committed to regional development to deliver economic growth to all the countries and regions of the UK, and address longstanding challenges, such as our flatlining productivity, lack of skills, and poor transport.
Construction will play a hugely important role in integrating and fulfilling these parallel missions. But there are significant challenges meaning that we probably need to once again rethink our boundaries, and this time beyond projects, frameworks, and supply chains, and even community-based development.
Perhaps we need to see construction as a wider ecosystem. Alex Vaughan, CEO at Costain, could be nudging us in in this direction. Commenting after the recent Budget he argues, “Shaping, creating, and delivering complex, transformative infrastructure demands effective planning, clear decision-making, and collaboration between the industry, government, and regulators. The UK needs to reset its relationship with infrastructure by committing to a 10- or 20-year plan …. enabling essential infrastructure to be delivered more productively, whilst providing consistency and continuity of demand for investors and the supply chain.”
Seeing construction as a business ecosystem along these lines requires working much more in concert with key players nationally and in our regions to gain the maximum value from investments by – yes of course – pulling levers in construction but also in the wider economic, environmental, political, and social environments.
But what is a business ecosystem? It’s where a cluster of organisations coordinate with other, largely independent economic players, to create a different coherent offering. A network of organisations working together to create value for customers beyond what is possible within the boundaries of individual organisations, projects, or supply chains. The goal is to create more value collectively than the members could create on their own.
It works by the ecosystem producing goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the ecosystem. The member ‘organisms’ include suppliers, customers, lead producers, competitors, and other key stakeholders such as local and regional governments.
Over time, they coevolve (in biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution through the process of natural selection) their capabilities and roles, and tend to align themselves with the directions and leadership set by one or more companies at the centre of the ecosystem.
Those companies holding leadership roles may change over time, but the function of a business ecosystem leader is valued by the community because it enables members to move toward shared visions and purpose, to align and maximise their investments, and to find mutually supportive roles
The key characteristics of a business ecosystem include engagement with customers, value sharing based on a win-win approach, organisational entrepreneurship alignment, and continuous smart and focused learning.
Here are some potential interventions that could support business ecosystems, each of which applies to the economy overall but may be more effectively pursued by targeting a cluster of firms within our regions with their uniquely shared challenges and prospects.
First, business ecosystems require information – both internally and externally – to identify opportunities and unlock expertise and potential. This information and research can be used to inform organisations and other stakeholders about their strengths, areas for growth and the priorities for shared action.
And there’s access to capital of course. Firms critical to driving both innovation and job creation, need capital to grow.
Next are cluster-based talent development strategies and intra- and inter-organisational learning to refresh and develop the specific skills and competencies needed in that ecosystem.
Engagement with research and development activities within universities, other research institutions, and private sector firms can yield more value and impact if coordinated and applied by an ecosystem.
Then there’s the specific role construction can play in a business ecosystem. The provision of tailored infrastructure and placemaking is seen as critical precondition for growth of a business ecosystem, such as logistics facilities or high-speed broadband connections. And interventions related to research commercialisation or talent development may also require physical investments, such as applied research labs, data centres, or training facilities.
After an excellent Construction Summit in October at Aston Villa, Birmingham, we are happy to be able to share the presentation slides for the day
Please CLICK HERE to view.
The speakers were as follows:
Welcome – Uma Shanker, Chair CE Midlands
Keynote Address – Richard Parker, Mayor West Midlands
The economy 100 days on from the election – Max Wilkes, AtkinsRéalis, Construction & Cost Intelligence Lead
Carbon Accounting – Nigel Tonks, Sustainable Development Manager at Arup
Carbon Accounting – Rebecca Clayton, Valuations Partner at PwC
Building Safety Advice Notes – Julie Bell-Barker, City of Wolverhampton Council (presentation on advice notes prepared by the CE Midlands Building Safety Theme Group)
A word from our sponsor, Acivico Group Kevin Blunden
Panel Session:
- Contractor – Adrian Speller (Speller Metcalfe)
- Consultant – Ian Tipton (Stride Treglown)
- Supplier – Andrew Shepherd (Ibstock Futures)
- Client – Darren Bramley (Birmingham Airport)
Launch of CE Midlands new Social Value Theme Group – Sue Woollett (Stepnell)
Trevor Steven in conversation with Andrew Carpenter
There can be no doubt that the need for collaborative working within the UK construction industry has never been greater. Report after report since the mid-nineties have outlined the necessity for collaboration to replace the traditional adversarial culture and for integrated supply chains to replace the fragmented nature of the sector. More recently Dame Judith Hackitt commented in her review following the Grenfell tragedy:
“We need to maintain the spirit of collaboration and partnership which has been a feature of the review process to date. In a sector that is excessively fragmented, we have seen during this review a will to work together to deliver consistent solutions. This will be especially important going forward to change culture.”
With productivity one of the current priorities within the new Labour Government, the need for our industry to adopt lean principles is essential and to be able to do this we must adopt a collaborative culture. The only way we can deliver ‘more for less’ or to get a ‘bigger bang for our buck’ is to have integrated collaborative supply chains. This level five diploma, academically benchmarked by the University of Wales, sets out to deliver the tools and techniques individuals will need to ensure that this essential collaborative culture can be delivered. One client recently commented, ‘the UK construction knows the word collaboration but doesn’t have the necessary knowledge, behaviours and culture to deliver it’.
Delegates undertaking this diploma course will add additional important skills in collaborative working to the advantage of themselves, their organisation and any projects on which they are involved. Clients will want their supply chains to have these skills and supply chain members may use them to win work. This diploma course provides you with the chance to be an early adopter in this critical area.
We are delighted to announce that the latest Level 5 Diploma in Collaboration in Construction course will commence in spring 2025 and that we are now taking bookings at diploma@cemidlands.org
When the Diploma in Collaboration in Construction was developed back in 2020-21, we worked with the University of Wales to academically benchmark the delivery, ensuring it met the rigours of the typical delivery of a short-duration Level 5 qualification. Private sector education organisations and University’s may class this as a form of MOOC or unaccredited CPD learning and therefore no unit credit values, or formal qualification are attached to this programme by UWTSD.
The focus of the development is the alignment of ‘industry collaboration’ in sharing best practices across the supply chain, very much experiential and led by industry experts and not traditional academic delivery and assessment. UWTSD is proud to support Constructing Excellence Midlands by previously academically benchmarking this innovative programme. This allows learners to recognise the level of academic learning being delivered and achieved for those who complete the course, even though it doesn’t result in a formal qualification.
We only have 16 places available so please book early for this eight month online course.
Starting in April 2025 CLICK HERE FOR FULL DIPLOMA BROCHURE
