Lendlease is leading the development of a new construction productivity ‘playbook’.
The playbook, which is supported by major contractors including Mace, Sir Robert McAlpine and Skanska, is aimed at boosting UK construction’s sluggish productivity levels.
The companies feature in the Construction Productivity Taskforce, which has been convened by charity Be the Business.
Former John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield established Be the Business in 2017. Its aim is to boost UK productivity by sharing expertise from the highest-performing companies.
Three strands to increased output
The taskforce, which also features British Land, GPE, Landsec, Morrisroe, SOM, Bryden Wood and Cast, has three strands of activity to increase performance:
- A private sector ‘playbook’ that helps all parties to collaborate to get projects right from the start. The playbook is complementary to the government’s Construction Playbook and encourages clients, contractors and SMEs to adopt fair and collaborative behaviours to drive innovation and productivity.
- Backing the Construction Data Trust, a new legal structure that allows organisations to share their data in a secure way. Taskforce members provide data on productivity, waste and health and safety. As a result, they can generate insights which drive higher performance in each of these areas. Data is anonymised to protect commercially sensitive information.
- Leading a pilot programme where live construction sites provide insight into effective data collection. Two sites, Norton Folgate and The Forge, are already active as part of this pilot, with more to follow. The Taskforce will shortly publish a practical best practice guide on how to collect and measure productivity on site, informed by this pilot.
‘Great opportunity’
Nigel Webb, chair of the Construction Productivity Taskforce and head of development at British Land, said: “Productivity levels in the UK construction sector have, for many years, consistently lagged behind other sectors. We believe there is a great opportunity to improve productivity in our sector, which, in turn, can lead to higher margins.”
Anthony Impey, chief executive, Be the Business, said: “The Construction Taskforce is a key part of Be the Business’ goal of raising productivity in every sector and region of the UK. A more productive construction sector is at the heart of rebuilding the economy post-pandemic.
On the Construction Data Trust, he added: ”Long-term, sustained performance improvements can only come from measuring progress. The Construction Data Trust provides infrastructure for the entire industry to identify opportunities for improvement, while remaining non-competitive. This can serve as a shining example of industry collaboration for other sectors to learn from.”
