Main contractor believes the commitment is key to it driving up productivity and driving down cost.
Balfour Beatty has launched the latest of its policy papers: 25% by 2025: Streamlined construction—even steps to offsite and modular building”, which outlines the company’s commitment to reducing work undertaken onsite by 25 per cent by 2025, in support of the Government’s 2025 strategy for lower cost, lower emissions and faster delivery.
The policy paper also outlines how government should work with the construction industry to modernize and drive change more quickly, calling for the construction industry to share best practice and learn from the manufacturing sector.
Balfour Beatty argues that the new generation of industrialised construction methods, including offsite and modular building techniques offer the UK construction industry one of the largest opportunities available of any sector to transform its model.
The company also recognises that industrialised construction is the best way to shift 25 per cent of its current output by 2025 to a solution that can critically improve safety, radically enhance productivity and quality but also create new expertise with the potential to be a massive export opportunity.
Balfour Beatty expects its ‘25 by 2025 strategy’ to deliver:
- Enhanced health, safety and well-being in our workforce
- Productivity gains, by concentrating on improving how it works
- Reduced logistics costs
- Quality assured projects with reduced onsite rework
- Greater certainty of programme delivery
- Shorter overall construction programmes
- A ‘design once, use often’ mindset which discourages designing bespoke systems and components
Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, said: “On a national level, industrialised construction would lead to the creation of thousands of jobs across the country over the next few years—if we invest now.
“For everyone in construction to reap the rewards of industrialised construction the industry must increase the pace of change while the public sector and other infrastructure commissioners need to fund schemes that utilise industrialised techniques.”
