Cost benchmarking and a move towards fully integrated project teams are among the objectives at the heart of the government’s construction strategy, Construction News reported.
The move will allow public clients to compare project costs across departments, Building reported.
The objectives also include the provision of data for all agreed and planned construction projects and the well trailed adoption of building information modelling.
The strategy will be overseen by the newly formed Government Construction Board, chaired by chief construction adviser Paul Morrell who is leading a government-wide push to cut the cost of public construction by 20% by 2016.
Announcing the strategy Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said the measures would help stimulate growth within the industry by enabling more to be constructed with the funds available.
“The public sector needs to be a better, more informed and strategic client. The construction industry, in turn, will benefit from a more collaborative working relationship with the public sector, allowing for innovation, increased efficiency, and delivering better value for money,” he said.
To stamp out “unjustified” cost variations between different schemes the government is to set up a central database of cost benchmarks for all public buildings such as hospitals and schools allowing public clients to read costs across different departments.
Specialist Engineering Contractors Group chief executive Rudi Klein described the strategy as “stirring stuff” and told Construction News that it was the culmination of a journey that began 20 years ago.
Klein said the move to integrate project teams would see the end of lump sum bidding, and for the first time bring in the people that delivered 90 per cent of a project’s value at the design stage.
But industry commentator Brian Green told Building that he feared the strategy was “flawed” and that the approach could impact negatively on the uses of buildings in the future.
Thomas Vale group managing director Tony Hyde said he broadly supported the strategy but warned it set a “real challenge” for the industry.
“It will command a radical change in working – and many in our sector will struggle with the new focus, particularly the change in ethos and values of real partnership working, let alone the financial consequences,” he said.
