by Clair Mooney | 25 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
Raw monthly data underlines growth trend with value of £6.3 billion.
Whilst overall construction output fell by a record 35.0% in Q2, the bulk of that decline occurred in April with data for both May and June showing record output growth. Whilst the normal focus for construction output would be on the more stable quarterly figures, the unusual situation in 2020 means that changes to monthly output data are now in sharper focus. The latest data release from ONS shows that overall construction output increased by 23.5% in June and follows the previous record of 7.6% increase in May. However, despite the strong growth over the last two months construction output in June 2020 is 24.8% below that of February 2020, immediately priorto Covid-19 lockdown. Data for June shows 22.5% increase for new work compared to May whilst RMI output increased by 26.0%. New housing was particularly positive with 39.0% increase for the public sector whilst private sector housing output increased by 42.3%.
The private commercial sector registered a 25.5% increase on the previous month whilst infrastructure new work was more subdued with 6.7% increase.
The UK construction sector in August 2020 is firmly on the path to recovery with output for May and June showing some bounce back. In addition, contract awards data for June and July is extremely positive indicating that the 51.1% slump in new orders in Q2 might be allayed to some extent in Q3. In addition, the Business Impact of Coronavirus Survey undertaken by ONS indicates that the construction sector had 75.5% of staff working at their normal place of work or working remotely between the 15 and 28 June 2020.
FIS members can access the full report here.
by Clair Mooney | 20 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
The Construction Leadership Council Smart Construction Dashboard demonstrates housing sector performance using a set of agreed KPI’s and Benchmarks. The dashboard contains maturity metrics for cost, digitisation, waste, energy, productivity (pre-manufactured value), carbon, health, safety and speed of build, and wellbeing. Since the first release of the dashboard in October 2018the sector has evolved. The UK government’s construction transformation funds has enabled housing projects to focus on future performance and innovation. Covid-19 has substantiated the requirement for an accelerated approach to deliver Smart construction. Digital technologies are gaining momentum in the sector, with leading contractors embracing and investing in advanced manufacturing and measurement. We are observing substantial progress with investment to transform the sector, such as the Urban Splash £90M deal with Sekisui, as well as TopHat receiving investment of £75M from Goldman Sachs.
In 2019 our CLC Innovation in Buildings workstream measures working group merged with the demonstrator projects and business case working group enabling the set metrics to be specified on housing projects and to demonstrate best housing practices against the UK Government’s Construction 2025 goals.
I’m pleased to announce the release of our second Housing Dashboard incorporating new data from 2019 to show the performance of the sector against the metrics. Greater guidance will be given for housing providers, developers and contractors to measure the performance on their own housing projects. We have introduced a new health and wellbeing measure, and made enhancements to the dashboard which consist of some new benchmarks, created by gathering better data sources with improved methodologies. The 2020 target is set at a 20% improvement on the benchmark target.
Along with each metric, there is a progress box containing a circle with a number in the middle. The number in the middle of the circle represents the % change between the 2019 benchmark figure and the 2018 benchmark figure. The circles round the outside represent the % progress towards the 2020 target, with the white line representing the % progress made. See below.
It is encouraging to see new built housing completions were rising in 2019. Based on the data set, improvements have been made across the sector with a lower number of injuries compared to the previous dashboard. Productivity has also improved for the sector. We have recalibrated the capital cost metric and the embodied carbon with new data, added prelims and the new health and wellbeing measure. Waste on site has gone up and time on site has increased in the new build homes sector, this could be for a number of reasons, including reasons like sales rate and Brexit impacts. Quality has not changed, and we are working towards a revised method in the next dashboard release.
I’m also excited to announce a new case study will be shortly available.
The housing sector is, all things being relative, at a “start point” when compared to other advanced industrialised sectors, and much more can be done to adopt innovation, deliver significant increases in productivity, satisfy end customers, and improve construction safety and wellbeing.
The CLC workgroup approach is to create demand and gain buy in for measuring project performance for the housing sector. We want to normalise performance measurement. We know the measures still need to be significantly improved, and we are working towards an improved dashboard later in 2020. Homes England, and innovative housing organisations, like Your Homes Newcastle are applying measures directly on projects, enabling their supply chain to respond to the challenges. The CLC team are determined to work with everyone to make this right, and move the sector forward.
A link to the new dashboard is here.
The Housing Industry Metrics report upon which the Dashboard it is based is linked here.
by Iain McIlwee | 18 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
FIS has launched a new factsheet focusing on the detailing of Prepared Service Openings commonly referred to as Builders Work Holes.
In launching the factsheet, FIS Technical Director Joe Cilia stated: “We have had a number of enquiries through our helpline in recent weeks looking at the proximity and permitted sizes of service openings.
Anyone following the Grenfell Inquiry and the cross examining of the various construction and site managers will see how it is possible for details to fall between cracks – all to often we we hear phrases like “the architect says it is the contractors choice”. This is the sort of area where design liability can be assumed and decisions must be informed by test evidence and properly signed off.
This factsheet isn’t so much about the definitive answers as these will depend on materials and environment and what the supplier/ manufacturer of the system states is required to maintain performance, but it is about making sure that the right process is followed and ultimately ensuring that a safety first approach is adopted.
The key point we are making is that early engagement in the design process is absolutely essential – we have to get away from the culture where the detailing is left to the last minute and the contractor expected to carry all the risk!”
The factsheet is Preparing Service Openings (Builders Work Holes) is available to download here
For the full range of technical support from the FIS visit our FIS Technical Knowledge Hub
by Clair Mooney | 18 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
The latest Constuction Trade Survey which captures the second quarter of 2020 reveals the extent to which the construction supply chain was affected by public health measures as a result of the nationwide lockdown in response to COVID-19.
Construction was permitted to continue during lockdown in England, but was restricted to coronavirus-related work and essential repairs or maintenance only in Scotland, which accounts for around 8% of construction output in Great Britain. However, widespread pauses in site activity were reported across the UK, particularly in house building and commercial. Not surprisingly, sales of construction products and materials, contractor workloads and surveyor workloads all experienced one of their worst contractions in history in Q2.
FIS members can access the CPA report here.
Additional Market Data is available in our Membership Hub.
by Iain McIlwee | 18 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
Members of the public and non-work-related cases
There is no requirement under RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) to report incidents of disease or deaths of members of the public, patients, care home residents or service users from COVID-19.The reporting requirements relating to cases of, or deaths from, COVID-19 under RIDDOR apply only to occupational exposure, that is, as a result of a person’s work.
What to report
You should only make a report under RIDDOR when one of the following circumstances applies:
Dangerous occurrences
Dangerous occurrences are certain unintended, specified events, which may not result in a reportable injury, but which do have the potential to cause significant harm.
For an incident to be reportable as a dangerous occurrence, the incident must have resulted (or could have resulted) in the release or escape of coronavirus, that is, led to a possible or actual exposure to coronavirus.
The assessment does not require any complex analysis, measurement or test, but rather for a reasonable judgement to be made as to whether the circumstances gave rise to a real risk or had the potential to cause significant harm.
Find out more about what the law says including some examples of what is not and what is reportable as a dangerous occurrence.
Cases of disease: exposure to a biological agent
When deciding if a report is required, the responsible person (usually the employer) must make a judgement, based on the information available, as to whether or not a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 is likely to have been caused by an occupational exposure, that is, whether or not there is reasonable evidence that a work-related exposure is the likely cause of the disease.
The report should specify a disease due to exposure to a biological agent and use the case of disease report form.
Get more information on what constitutes a diagnosis and more guidance on making a judgement and reasonable evidence.
Work-related deaths due to exposure to a biological agent
For an incident to be reportable as a death due to occupational exposure to coronavirus there must be reasonable evidence that a work-related exposure caused the worker’s death.
The responsible person should notify the enforcing authority by the quickest practicable means, without delay, and send a report within 10 days. The report should specify death due to exposure to a biological agent using the “case of disease” report form.
More on work-related deaths from coronavirus: What the law says and information on making a judgement using reasonable evidence.
Make a RIDDOR report online
You can access the FIS COVID H&S Toolkit here
by Iain McIlwee | 18 Aug, 2020 | Main News Feed
Education represents the second largest element of public service spending in the UK behind Health – equivalent to around 4.3 per cent of national income. However, despite this level of commitment, the UK continues to face significant challenges when it comes to ensuring there are sufficient school places to meet growing demand.
According to ‘The School Places Challenge 2019’ published by Scape Group, despite efforts to increase school building over recent years, local authorities continue to face an uphill battle – with the number of children needing a school place in England expected to rise by 385,031 by 2021/22, and Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales expecting to require an additional 33,179 pupils between them by 2020/21.
In a post Covid-19 financial landscape the need to deliver high quality buildings with improved levels of efficiency will never be greater – and represents an opportunity to turn this challenge into a positive catalyst for change.
The Construction Leadership Council has identified that innovation and smart construction has the potential to transform the productivity of the construction sector, address its capacity issues and improve the quality and performance of the buildings we produce.
We have already seen positive progress by the Innovation in Buildings workstream to drive the adoption of smart construction within a Residential context and are now pleased to extend this thinking across another sector.
Working with the Department for Education and a number of key industry, academic and government representatives we have commenced the development of a collaborative plan of action to deliver a real increase in smart construction across Educational building delivery.
The findings of our initial launch workshop are published below, and we look forward to sharing our ongoing progress with you throughout 2020 and beyond.
Read the Initial Scoping Workshop Report here.
