Bureaucratic cholesterol clogging construction's arteries
It is more than 15 years since the publication of the Wolstenholme Report into UK construction performance.
Andrew Wolstenholme analysed the British construction industry's performance against the objectives set out in the 1998 Egan Report. And his assessment was pessimistic, noting a failure to meet targets in almost all areas bar profitability. Wolstenholme outlined several problems prevalent in the industry and measures that might be taken to resolve them.
15 years on and it feels like Wolstenholme’s warnings also fell on deaf ears. Productivity in the UK construction sector continues to slow against that of other comparable nations and comparable industry sectors.
It is easy to lay the blame for this continued slide in productivity at the feet of successive governments and their “will they, won’t they” approach to construction and infrastructure planning and investment. We might also point the finger of blame at those that have allowed the sector’s skills shortage to fester and metastasise without treatment or remedy.
But, in truth, construction - and, by association, demolition - is its own worst enemy; it has been the architect of its own downfall. Even as productivity was sliding, the industry has placed sticking plasters upon sticking plasters while never actually addressing the underlying wounds.
In many ways, the construction sector is like those people that start each New Year by installing the very latest productivity apps on their phones, and who then send so much time filling them out that they don’t actually have time to get any real work done.
Similarly, the construction industry has become distracted by systems. From planning through pre-tendering; risk assessments and method statements, overly complex training matrices, and protracted sign-off processes, the industry has allowed productivity to be supplanted by procedure.
All those processes, procedures, and regulations have been allowed to clog the sector’s productivity arteries in precisely the same way that cholesterol clogs the arteries of human beings.
And like the heart of a person suffering with high cholesterol, the industry must work harder and harder to maintain that vital flow. Failure to address the underlying cause of cholesterol in the human body can result in a total breakdown in the form of a heart attack or a stroke. Failure to address the draining procedural cholesterol within construction could prove equally catastrophic.
In both humans and in industry, the solution is stark and clear: blockages in the arteries cannot be fixed with sticking plasters. What’s required is a fundamental lifestyle change.
For individuals, that might mean diet, exercise, a rethinking of habits. For construction, it demands something equally transformative. It means re-examining priorities, stripping away the unnecessary, and focusing on what truly matters. It means challenging the culture that equates complexity with progress, that values procedure over productivity. It means asking difficult questions and being prepared to hear difficult answers.
What might that fundamental lifestyle change look like? It could begin with leadership: not just at the top, but throughout the industry. Leaders who are willing to challenge the status quo, to prioritise long-term gains over short-term fixes, to inspire rather than dictate. It could involve a reimagining of education and training, building not just skills but pride and ambition. It might mean embracing technology not as a crutch but as a catalyst, using it to empower rather than encumber.
Somewhere along the way, the demolition and construction industry lost its way. It has allowed the call for productivity to be drowned out by the deafening noise of procedure.
To move forward, the industry needs to reconnect with that core identity. To remember why it builds, and for whom. To take a few steps back to find where it went wrong. Like a person abandoning multiple complex productivity apps and returning to a paper diary and a ballpoint pen.
The journey won’t be easy. Lifestyle changes never are. They demand effort, commitment, and a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. But the alternative - a continued decline, a heart attack waiting to happen - is unthinkable.
And now is the perfect opportunity to make the switch. Andrew Wolstenholme’s report was sub-titled “never waste a good crisis” and it called for the UK construction industry to use the 2008 recession as a turning point.
15 years later, post-Brexit and post-COVID, we find ourselves back in the economic doldrums. We failed to make the necessary changes last time and it cost us dearly. Failure to do so again could be fatal.
This topic was the subject of an in-depth discussion on today's after show chat. You can listen to the resulting podcast here.