The government has launched a research initiative aimed at delivering 10 per cent savings across public sector construction by 2030.
Construction is one of two sectors being supported by a new £4m fund, that will also focus on digital infrastructure for the creative industries.
This latest initiative follows the 2023 conclusion of the Transforming Construction Challenge (TCC), a much more ambitious scheme which benefited firms involved but did not lead to industry-wide change.
The new scheme, the Industrialising and Digitising Construction Research and Innovation Challenge is part of the wider £500m Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme, which backs UK-based science and technology projects aimed at driving economic growth.
The challenge will support the creation of a digital marketplace to develop and deliver standardised industrialised building components and processes at scale, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said.
The platform, it said, will allow construction, manufacturing and digital firms to configure and share digital designs for use in infrastructure and buildings, helping reduce errors, cut waste and accelerate delivery.
The government said the initiative is intended to provide certainty of demand and specification to suppliers, helping them scale production through manufacturing-style approaches.
According to DSIT, the new platform will also verify building product compliance with safety and quality standards, helping the industry adopt materials more efficiently and confidently.
Science minister Lord Vallance said the programme aimed to “help transform how we build the homes, hospitals and infrastructure our country needs”, adding that innovation in construction could contribute directly to growing the economy.
The digital construction platform will be aimed at public sector projects such as schools, social housing, hospitals and transport infrastructure.
The TCC grew out of the 2017 Construction Sector Deal and ran from 2018 to 2023, funded with £170m from government which was matched by £250m from industry.
The original challenge targets included delivering projects 50 per cent faster, reducing whole life costs by 33%, slashing lifetime emissions by half and raising productivity by 15%.
An independent impact evaluation commissioned by Innovate UK concluded that the TCC had “begun to shape thinking” around procurement in the public sector, including through a significant contributions to the Construction Playbook.
It said that the demonstrator firms involved had exceeded targets but that “further tangible change, including change across the commercial sector, will take time to deliver”.
It said that there was “relatively limited evidence on the wider impact of the challenge beyond the organisations directly engaged”.
Source: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announcement
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