Future gazing at this time of year is a very tempting activity. Everyone likes to believe the year ahead will bring better opportunities, and better experiences.
At Construction Manager, and our sister website bimplus.co.uk, we spend a lot of time focused on the future, writing about new innovations. Our “Buzzwords of 2016” feature in this issue also identified a bumper crop of new concepts that should start to make their presence felt, driving up efficiency and moving the industry away from the “it’s always been done that way” factor.
FinTech, wearable technology and li-fi should also bring new suppliers and talent into the industry, refreshing the skills base and positioning construction as a forward-thinking industry, and a desirable place to work.
The industry is also adopting new thinking on “soft skills”, the relationships and behaviours that form the sub-structure of any project. In the years to come, “behavioural assessment” and “cultural intelligence” will inform the way project teams deliver new schemes.
But if there’s plenty of supply-side ideas to look forward to, what about the demand side in 2016? Clearly, this is the year when we need final certainty on HS2. Although there’s growing confidence that it will go ahead, and the Northern Powerhouse premise is heavily dependent on it, the project needs to pass the hurdle of final parliamentary approval. Only then can the spin-off development plans for Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield start to take shape.
Then there’s the horribly familiar problem of low housing output, which, judging by the latest batch of ONS orders figures for Q3 2016, is still heading in the wrong direction on public housing. Minister Brandon Lewis, speaking to Construction Manager, is urging the contractor sector to step up and directly deliver more schemes in the private rented sector. While there clearly is room for growth in this area, there’s also room for more policy stability that allows housing associations to plan ahead.
Then, of course, 2016 is the long-heralded year of the BIM mandate. Clearly, BIM is a positive, efficiency-driving force for many of the sector’s leading contractors and consultants. What’s less clear is whether it’s actually improving outcomes and the financial bottom line for clients. So 2016 is not only the year of the mandate, but the year we need more transparency on what it’s achieving, and where it could improve.
There’s plenty of reason to think 2016 will bring many positive changes for the industry, many of them driven by technology, innovation and BIM. But the underlying economy, and therefore construction demand, is looking less robust than we would like.
So the message for 2016 is surely that we need technology and innovation, for its own sake, for the injection of new ideas it brings, and for its capacity to create an industry better able to withstand the uncertainties of the future.
Elaine Knutt, editor
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