The CBI Construction Council hopes to promote its idea for a construction-wide “innovation levy” via its representation on the new Construction Leadership Council.
The idea was first floated in the council’s submission to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills for the Industrial Strategy for Construction, but it was not taken up. The strategy talks of:
- exploring options for improving awareness of the innovation and research agenda in the wider construction industry;
- trialling the use of “innovation exchange discussions” between clients and their supply chains at the early stage of a project, a strategy pioneered by British Water;
- and exploring options for improving post-project evaluations.
Lucy Thornycroft, head of construction and manufacturing at the CBI, said: “Generally, we thought that the strategy would have gone further in terms of solid, targeted actions to unleash growth and facilitate innovation, so the levy is certainly something we’d like to see taken further.
“We need to be careful that we’re not just re-packaging what’s already done. If you look at what the construction sector invests in R&D, it’s low compared to other UK industries and on a global level.
“But we think that an innovation levy could be an effective mechanism to create collaboration across the supply chain as well as increasing innovation.
“It would create a mechanism that would embed innovation across the industry rather than in specific companies, and improve the flow of knowledge.”
Five members of the CBI Construction Council also sit on the new Construction Leadership Council: Midas chairman Steve Hindley FCIOB, who also chairs the council; Kier chief executive Paul Sheffield; Barratt Developments group chief executive Mark Clare; Skanska chief executive Mike Puttnam; and Mark Oliver, managing director of blockwork manufacturer H&H. The new council is due to hold its second meeting next month.
However, Thornycroft acknowledged that any scheme that involved collecting a mandatory levy from companies in the sector would be complex to put in place.
Meanwhile, research compiled by BIS to support the Industrial Strategy found that the UK construction-related patent registrations account for a relatively high share of all UK patents, in comparison to other countries and their share of construction patents, giving the UK a “relative technological advantage in construction”.
