The UK’s construction sector has a strong competitive edge in the global construction market, forecasted to grow by over 70% by 2025. The 2013 Industrial Strategy: government and industry in partnership – Construction 2025, fruit of a collaboration between industry and the Government, shares a long-term vision for UK construction and includes an action plan.
The key objectives of the Strategy are to lower construction and whole-life costs by 33%, increase delivery by 50%, lower greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment by 50% and reduce the trade gap between exports and imports by 50%.
Objectives are aligned to targets and the areas of intervention include manpower, smart solutions, sustainability, growth and leadership:
- Attracting young people and upskilling the existing workforce are key to boosting capacity and capability.
- Developing efficient and technologically advanced solutions in all areas of construction, spearheaded by investment in research and innovation, is imperative to maintain global standing. The UK’s commitment to the Building Information Modelling (BIM) programme is an opportunity to excel.
- The enormous pressure to adopt environmental practices sharpens the focus on low-carbon and green construction solutions. These have the potential to provide value for money, for instance addressing material and energy waste.
- The global construction industry is set to grow by 4.3% each year until 2025 and it is crucial to boost the UK construction’s competitiveness. It is also a great opportunity to create a strong and resilient supply chain.
- The Construction Leadership Council, representing organisations across the industry, will provide leadership and oversee the delivery of the Strategy.
An archive version of this information article has been created if the original is no longer accessible (Archive information from January 2024)
A report for the Government Construction Client Group, the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Working Party strategy paper
This report was compiled by the BIM Industry Working Group in 2011 to brief the Construction Clients Group on the benefits of digital ways of working in the built environment.
It was commissioned by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Efficiency Reform Group from the Cabinet Office to devise a strategy to increase the uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) among public sector clients over a five-year period.
The adoption of BIM would not only improve the performance of government estate in terms of costs, value and carbon performance but also support and promote the UK construction sector’s standing and reputation in international markets.
Collaboration between industry and academia is crucial to ensure an increase of competency through on-going training, toolkits and knowledge exchange, supported by standards and accreditations.
An archive version of this information article has been created if the original is no longer accessible (Archive information from January 2024)
The Government Construction Strategy was published in May 2011 to support the growth of the construction sector, which is a major part of the UK economy. It was prepared by the Efficiency and Reform Group of the Cabinet Office and the Construction Sector Unit of BIS, working closely with Infrastructure UK (IUK).
The Strategy aimed to help reduce costs up to 20%, improve business models and practices, and establish a collaborative culture while ensuring the public sector is more informed and better coordinated to provide clear briefs and work with suppliers to develop cost-effective solutions for projects of all sizes.
Within the Strategy, a key element for reducing costs, cutting waste and avoiding errors is the adoption of the Building information Modelling (BIM), which makes the most of digital technologies to provide a consistent flow of information, measurable standards at all stages of construction and a basis for asset management when a project is completed.
To enable businesses of all sizes to implement BIM, the Government set up a timeframe and adoption path that allow companies at different transition stages to catch up. This is described in the Strategy as a phased process involving industry groups, in order to allow time for businesses to prepare for the development of new standards and for upskilling their workforce.
The 2011 Government Construction Strategy introduced fully collaborative BIM – with all project and asset information, documentation and electronic data – as a minimum requirement for all government clients by 2016. This is referred to as the UK BIM Mandate.
An archive version of this information article has been created if the original is no longer accessible (Archive information from January 2024)
