Full steam ahead, all guns blazing

A fundamental problem for construction is that, for an industry contributing 8% of the nation’s GDP, we do not punch our weight.

It is not hard to see the underlying problem. DTI figures show that out of the 177,000 firms working within the industry, 164,000 have fewer than 13 employees, and only 60 employ more than 1,200.

As an industry we are fragmented. Add to that the mistrust between major players and the SME sector and it is not hard to see why the market place is seen as shark-infested. Barriers to entry have been virtually non-existent. Cut price competitive tendering in the public sector, and a blame and litigation culture, continually threaten to disrupt at every level.

Nowhere is this fragmentation clearer than within our representative bodies. A recent Wates’ survey revealed that there are 300 trade bodies in the sector. In contracting, at least, we thought we were beginning to solve this problem in the mid-1990s with the foundation of the Construction Confederation, but the groups that make it up often lose sight of what binds them.

There are signs that we are beginning to change. The whole industry has embraced a drive to improve health and safety over the past five years. Faced with a common threat, we punched our weight then, so why don’t we do it more often? The answer is that we have limited management time and heavy workloads, so we tend to focus blindly on doing the job in hand.

The lack of a mechanism that would allow us to pull together flows from our fragmentation. The Strategic Forum (and the Construction Industry Board before it) has been only partially successful in overcoming this. The CIB did fine things – including implementing the Latham report and establishing Considerate Constructors Scheme – but for the most part it was seen by the industry as a creature of government rather than a body that truly understood its commercial environment. The Strategic Forum was tarred with the same brush. However, the industry has taken ownership of the forum and we are starting to transform the agenda.

We are beginning to sail together. But we need to get to full steam ahead. I want the whole industry to speak with one strong voice

Not surprisingly, health and safety will dominate. The main point is to ensure that the public sector works only with contractors that have a fully qualified workforce, as demonstrated by CSCS cards.

Sustainability and integration are also central. We need to tackle the challenge in bite-sized chunks. Excellent work has been done by the forum’s sustainability task group in advising government on what is practicable, but we need to raise the profile.

At Wates we are trying to send no waste to landfill. That is also an aspiration of others; the challenge is to find ways of getting the whole supply chain to subscribe to it.

I want an industry like a fleet – all sailing with purpose and in the same direction. I see the umbrella bodies as the men of war. I see some of the other players as the destroyers, tackling barriers. Our lobbyists are mine sweepers. I see some vessels out in front – the Major Contractors Group and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association on health and safety, the Scots on recruitment and training, the material suppliers on research and development.

I see the Strategic Forum as the admiral, working with some able captains. We are beginning to set sail together. But we need to get to full steam. Most of all I want us all to line up beneath a single construction industry banner, speaking with one voice, punching our full weight for the first time.