Construction Strategy – BIM Academy: Learning and Development

In 1994 the Latham Report ‘Constructing the Team’ was published. The report was commissioned by the UK government to investigate the perceived problems with the construction industry, which the report’s author, Sir Michael Latham described as ‘ineffective’, ‘adversarial’, ‘fragmented’ and ‘incapable of delivering for its customers.

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In 1997, the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott set up the Construction Task Force, chaired by Sir John Egan. In 1998, the task force published ‘Rethinking Construction, The report of the Construction Task Force to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, on the scope for improving the quality and efficiency of UK construction. It is generally referred to as the Egan report.

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The earlier 1994 Latham report had led to the creation of the Construction Industry Board (CIB) to oversee reform, this was replaced in 2001 by the Strategic Forum for Construction 2001, chaired by Sir John Egan. In September 2002 the Strategic Forum for Construction published a report on its first year of activity Accelerating change:

A report by the Strategic Forum for Construction. In it, Egan stated ‘I have been greatly impressed by the industry’s efforts to apply ‘Rethinking Construction’ principles’. The report stated ‘Our vision is for the UK construction industry to realise maximum value for all clients, end-users and stakeholders and exceed their expectations through the consistent delivery of world-class products and services.’

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‘Never Waste A Good Crisis – A Challenge To The UK Construction Industry’ was written by Andrew Wolstenholme of Balfour Beatty Management for Constructing Excellence and published in October 2009. ‘Never Waste A Good Crisis’, written during the worst depths of the credit crunch was intended to assess the progress that the industry has made since Rethinking Construction in 1998 and to set out a series of further improvements that could be made over the next ten years.

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The Infrastructure Cost Review was a 2010 report commissioned by the government of the United Kingdom and written by Infrastructure UK to find efficiency savings in the delivery of infrastructure projects. The British government aimed to make savings of up to £3 billion per year on current expenditure by 2015, primarily in the pre-construction phase.

The report made a series of recommendations for changes in government procurement and planning. Cost savings were quickly realised and Infrastructure UK reported savings of £1.5 billion at the end of the first reporting year and £3 billion by 2014. The programme was projected to have saved £50 billion in expenditure by the end of the 2010s. Infrastructure UK was absorbed into the Infrastructure and Projects Authority which launched its Transforming Infrastructure Performance in 2017 which aims to make £15 billion in annual savings.

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Construction 2025 is a partnership between industry and Government to transform the construction industry. Central to the industrial strategy is the development of long-term partnerships between the Government and those sectors which can deliver significant growth. Construction is one of those key sectors.

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The second Government Construction Strategy, Government Construction Strategy 2016 2020 was published by the Cabinet Office and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) in March 2016. It set out plans to deliver £1.7 billion of efficiencies and 20,000 apprenticeships.

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Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) is the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA’s) flagship programme to lead system change in the built environment. Its purpose is to transform how the government and industry decide to intervene in the built environment, to drive a step-change in infrastructure performance.

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The Construction Playbook, published on 8 December 2020, sets out plans for how the Government will work with the construction sector to ensure public sector works are delivered faster, better and greener.

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The report describes the Working Group’s recommended strategy to deliver a structured Government/Sector capability to increase BIM take-up over a five-year horizon as part of a joined-up plan to improve the performance of the government estate in terms of its cost, value and carbon performance.

The aim of the Industrial Strategy was to boost productivity by backing businesses to create good jobs and increase the earning power of people throughout the UK with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure.

A pan-European approach to best practice in Building Information Modelling, to encourage the common use of BIM, as ‘digital construction’, in public works to improve value for public money, quality of the public estate and sustainable competitiveness of the industry.

The UK BIM Alliance aims to ensure BIM becomes business as usual whilst at the same time, transforming and future-proofing the way the industry work.

Their key goals:

• To provide trusted independent leadership
• To mobilise the community
• To enable practical implementation
• To establish and support common understanding, a common approach and one voice

The Executive Team are a group of volunteer leaders, comprised of industry professionals from across the Built Environment.

The UK BIM Alliance communities cover the mainland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.

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The UK BIM Framework have the overarching approach to implementing BIM in the UK, brought to you by BSI, CDBB and the UK BIM Alliance.

The UK BIM Framework sets out the approach for implementing BIM in the UK using the framework for managing information provided by the ISO 19650 series. It includes:

• The published standards called upon to implement BIM in the UK
• The UK BIM Guidance Framework
• Useful links to other resources

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The UK BIM Framework will guide and support you in implementing BIM.

In particular, the Guidance for:
Part 1: Concepts
Part 2: Processes for Project Delivery is being updated quarterly, to expand and improve its content.

This will include the early release of Guidance on Parts 3 to 5 of the ISO 19650 series as they are published, and the withdrawal of the equivalent PAS 1192 standards. (no BS will be withdrawn on publication of parts 3 and 5 of ISO 19650)