Building the Future Commission: review of February

Here are the highlights of the latest coverage for the commission and there is much more in the pipeline read on for a taster of some of what’s to come.

Some of the commission’s activity in February included:

• We launched the Young Person’s Advisory Panel (pictured below) to harness the knowledge of the next generation of leaders in the construction sector. This panel brings together a great bunch of talented younger people (I won’t name tag everyone here but they work for firms and organisations such as Ramboll. Faithful+Gould, RIBA, Turner & Townsend, The Home Builders Federation #HBF, Gleeds, The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Cushman & Wakefield, Fenwick Elliott LLP. Chartered Institute of Housing and many more). The panel are now all connected in a LinkedIn group where they are having regular discussions about key topics. Already they have tackled how to help young people navigate pathways into construction careers and shared what they think are the best bits of innovation happening in the industry. The plan is for us to unpack some of these discussions in a virtual meet up and to share recordings with our wider audience next month, so watch this space. 
• In our search for case studies that point to industry innovation we visited the University of Salford’s Energy House 2.0, a £16m research facility that tests the homes of the future for thermal performance, energy efficiency and coping with extreme temperatures for our netzero and energy stream.  
• We ran an in-depth piece on what the government’s proposed ban on single staircase developments is likely to mean for construction and housebuilding for our building safety stream.
• We talked to Sir Robert McAlpine about how it teamed up with consultancy Timewise to understand how on-site construction could benefit from flexible working, and we heard first hand accounts from workers about difference this approach makes to their every day lives for our workplace culture and leadership stream.
• We investigated the potential of building performance rating system NABERS UK as an alternative to Part L for our net zero and energy stream.
• We visited the Hanover Square development by Bond Street station in London to consider major infrastructure projects can catalyse the delivery of excellent placemaking for our creating communities stream.

And for what is happening in March and beyond:

• Today we have published a piece on the qualifications landscape needs to change and assess whether more flexibility is needed for our skills and education stream.
• We have our first regional roundtable debate in the East of England in partnership with Constructing Excellence on 23 March, and we will be reporting on the proposals for change that emerge from that discussion, which is focused on tackling the skills shortage in the region, soon afterwards. You can find key dates in the commission’s diary on our refreshed commission web page. A big date to flag up – though some time in the future - is our Commission Summit on 27 September, when there will be the opportunity to come along and hear debates and take part in Q&A sessions in person . We will release more details of what will be happening on that day in the months to come.
• We will publish an interview a big hitter in the world of infrastructure talking about how to get big infrastructure projects delivered in the current political climate.
• We will assess a potential new model for collaborative working and procurement being used by the Ministry of Justice for its prisons programme which is for our project delivery and digital stream.
• We will look at plans for one of the largest planned timber housing development and lessons it could offer in how to secure community support for relatively high density schemes in the parts of the country that tend to oppose development.

That’s not an exhaustive list, we have ideas coming in all the time so expect much more. And in the meantime you can follow our progress using #BuildingTheFuture on social media and another reminder that you can now get involved by sending submission to the commission through our Ideas Hub.