Industry awareness of safety issues remains shallow, with only one in five professionals fully prepared for the Building Safety Act, a new survey has found.
The survey, jointly produced by supply chain standards body GS1 UK and construction market intelligence firm Barbour ABI, found that while there was 98% awareness of the Act, only 21% were confident of meeting its requirements.
When asked about the golden thread of information, designed to ensure safety and accountability across a building’s lifecycle, nine in 10 respondents were aware of it, but only 14% said they fully understood it.
The survey also found that UK construction was losing up to £3.8 billion each year because product information remains fragmented, inconsistent and difficult to share
Meanwhile, 52% of construction professionals say a lack of digitalisation leads to revenue loss, rising to 69% among larger organisations. They pointed to the continued reliance on static documents such as pdfs and brochures, making it difficult to maintain consistent, up-to-date product information across supply chains and building lifecycles.
Nearly all respondents identified barriers to digitalisation, including a lack of clear direction (36%), competing priorities (34%), cost constraints (33%) and a lack of digital skills (30%).
Three out of five (60%) say inefficiencies in managing construction product information are hampering progress, while nearly half (48%) describe current approaches as disorganised.
Putting regulatory requirements into practice
The report revealed a growing gap between industry awareness of regulatory requirements and its ability to put them into practice, with 47% agreeing the sector lagged behind other industries on transparency and traceability.
Confidence levels in the industry about the sector’s ability to deliver was also low – only 7% of construction professionals believe the government’s target of delivering 1.5 million new homes by 2030 will be met.
GS1 UK director of industry engagement, Iain Walker, said: “For years, construction’s digital debate has focused on systems, platforms and documents. The harder question is whether everyone involved in designing, specifying, purchasing, installing and maintaining products is working from the same trusted information.”
A total of 317 construction professionals from across the UK undertook the survey.
