UK props up Euro construction efficiency league, new report finds

The UK construction industry is near the bottom of a European efficiency league, a shock new report has found.

The report, Benchmarking of Use of Construction Resources in the Member States, rated the UK joint 11th out of 13 countries, with only Ireland performing worse. The best performing countries were Belgium and Norway.

Author Bernard Williams said the report showed a stark contrast between the modus operandi of different European countries, with the efficient countries using prefabrication and a highly skilled workforce and less productive nations using largely unskilled labour and traditional procurement methods.

Williams said: "The costs we are managing and controlling are too high to start with. This is why the study is so important - it identifies those countries that build for less by prefabricating."

The costs we are managing and controlling are too high to start with

Bernard Williams

Williams also claimed the QS profession was key to improving efficiency by being more creative and encouraging contractors to become more involved in designing buildings.

The call to use more prefabrication was backed by Francis Ives, chairman of Cyril Sweett. Ives said the wider use of prefabrication would improve efficiency and lessen disputes.

He argued that the advantage of modular construction was that once it was underway it was too costly to stop. He said: "You can't change it halfway through and you can't hold up the production process." He said that to delay the process would lead to extreme measures demanded by the prefabrication firm, such as building an alternative factory in order to keep up with their other clients' orders.

Everyone designs a different toilet but I’m not quite sure that one is better than another

Francis Ives, Cyril Sweett

Ives said: "We are approaching 10 years of good construction, not just related to the Olympics, and as long as there are late designs and changes we will always have disputes."

He said the industry needed more modular construction providers and also called for more standardisation in prefabricated design. "Every bit of prefabrication has been for one project alone. Everyone designs a different toilet but I'm not quite sure that one is better than another."

Leading contractor Ray O'Rourke said last month his firm was planning a major efficiency drive, partly through using off-site fabrication. "In the next five years we will reduce the number of people on site by 60%, which will allow us to grow at our predicted rates. The industry will have to design differently and work collaboratively with deliverers of projects to make projects more predictable on safety, quality, time and cost."

The report was produced by Bromley-based firm Bernard Williams Associates for the Enterprise and Industry Directorate General of the European Commission.