More than two-thirds of government departments’ £50bn construction pipeline is suitable for delivery at least in part through a platform solution.
The Construction Innovation Hub has examined key Whitehall departments’ future projects (Education, Health and Social Care, Housing, Justice and Defence) and circa £35bn has been identified as being suitable for delivery, in whole or in part, through platforms.
The Hub will publish its full analysis, Defining the Need, early in 2021, but the highlights are:
- more than 50% of space types (such as hallways, bathrooms and storage) are not department-specific and could be delivered with a standardised platform solution;
- 38% of spaces across the new build pipeline will be ‘residential spaces’, presenting a secondary market for the private sector; and
- there are 104 different names for toilet spaces alone across the government estate, highlighting the need for a common way of naming spaces that is machine-readable, so future demand can be accurately analysed and harmonised.
Following the formal launch of Defining the Need, the next step will be the development of a freely available Platform Rulebook, which detail the standards and processes that will be key turning the opportunity into reality.
Trudi Sully, the Hub’s manufacturing impact director, said: “Our Platform Design Programme comes at a crucial time for both the sector and the government. The National Infrastructure Strategy and the Construction Playbook, both published in recent weeks, have given public bodies a clear mandate to transform their approach to infrastructure delivery through the adoption of better, faster, cleaner solutions.
“The insights generated by our Defining the Need report are deeply encouraging and exciting. By adopting our ‘kit of parts’ at scale, departments could quicken the pace towards greater levels of productivity, cut down dramatically on waste and drive a wholesale switch towards whole-life value.”
Will Varah, programme director for modern methods of construction at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, said: “The insights revealed by the Hub illustrate the enormous potential of the platform approach to transform how we build critical social infrastructure. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with industry through the Hub, so we can deliver a more sustainable future for the sector and society.”
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