Change is tough in construction. And it is not helped by our continued reliance on well-meaning but disconnected pushes for industry improvement. Such campaigns include attempts to drive better behaviours and collaboration, improve procurement, reform payment practices, increase gender and ethnic diversity, address the skills crisis and move to more of a manufacturing process-led philosophy.

In many ways they represent in isolation no more than sticking plasters, if not combined with a more fundamental redefinition of what we do and how we do it.

The government’s announcement last week of the £420m deal to technologically transform the construction industry is certainly a step in the right direction. It will take time to deliver change, but the ambition presented here, in conjunction with the government’s own leadership in its capital spend programmes, will ultimately accelerate housing and infrastructure delivery and enable the industry to keep up with the broader demands of a growing economy.

The fact that BIM fundamentally relies on people and different businesses collaborating and sharing data is a real stumbling block to its adoption

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